


A Remnant of Memories

by multifandomensional



Category: RWBY, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mineta Minoru Doesn't Exist, Crossover, Fix-It of Sorts, Friendship, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I'm Sorry, Mentioned Summer Rose (RWBY), Reincarnation, Remnant (RWBY), Reunions, as in I have issues with the later volumes so I’m messing with them, but class 1-A is there too, follows the volumes, i try to make everyone happy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-05
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-01-23 17:03:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 43,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21323644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/multifandomensional/pseuds/multifandomensional
Summary: After a villain attack on his class, Izuku finds himself in a completely different world, living a brand new life from scratch. He has his memories, and he has his power. So he does what he's always done, vow to be a hero that protects the people.He has a new family, but when he finally arrives at Beacon, he finds out that his old one may not be as far away as he thought.Updates will be slow, but they will come!
Relationships: Asui Tsuyu/Uraraka Ochako, Bakugou Katsuki/Kirishima Eijirou, Jirou Kyouka/Yaoyorozu Momo, Midoriya Izuku/Todoroki Shouto, You really have to squint to see some of the stuff
Comments: 117
Kudos: 222
Collections: Reincarnation and Transmigration





	1. In a Flash

It started out as a perfectly normal day for the students of Class 1-A. The sun had warmed the morning atmosphere and the air outside was fresh and clear and after much begging from some of the students, Aizawa had relented and let them go out into the city as long as they had proper chaperones. Present Mic laughed uproariously when he heard that Aizawa was going to be one of said chaperones, claiming that the class had him wrapped completely around their fingers. The pro hero sunk lower into his grey scarf and mumbled that he was only going with them because he wasn’t sure if any other teachers could manage to keep a firm grip on the twenty students. He had enough trouble as it was. All Might was only tagging along because they needed a second adult and the other teachers had been put on standby to help with a loose cannon of a villain that had been running around recently after a jailbreak. Mic and Midnight only continued to snicker at the tired pro despite his protests.

But naturally, with so many problem children in his class, the pro hero really should have seen this coming. ‘This’ being stuck on a street as people fled from the villain everyone was on standby for as he stood at the center of the road. Wisps of light seemed to drift off of him, curling and reaching for the fleeing citizens. The students shifted into fighting stances as their teacher stood in front of them facing the villain, his capture weapon floating and ready to lash out. The villain’s face stretched into a wide and menacing grin.

“My my, I thought I would one heck of a time just getting to one of the kids! But here they all are, on a silver platter for me! I knew I was making the right choice when I took this job.” His eyes flickered over to where Toshinori was helping a young woman and her child on the edges of the soon to be battle field. In the time it took to blink, a wisp of light lashed out striking him.

“All Might!” Midoriya yelled as his classmates took in sharp breaths, shifting forward to run to their teacher. The skeletal form of the man seemed to flicker, as if running through many images, turning him briefly into the hero he was, a young teen, back to the beaten form the world saw after the battle between him and All for One. And then he vanished. It was in this time that the class had taken their first step towards him, but they were too late to do anything. The woman screamed, clutching her crying child against her breasts, hunched over in fear. Aizawa immediately launched himself at the villain, his capture weapon flying out to ensnare him. He managed to dodge the first whip of light that solidified before him, but was not so lucky with the next. He, just like Toshinori, began to flicker, before vanishing entirely. The students stood in shock for a moment, and only for a moment mind you, before Bakugou with a yell and a number of curses on his lips blasted forward with an explosion, Todoroki and Kirishima right behind him. In the time it took for the police that were just rounding the corner to come into view of the villain, the class was down to nearly half its usual size. In a flash, he had eliminated many of the strongest hitters of the class. Mina gave a shriek as dozens a razor like tendrils slashed down in a flail like motion and grazed her and the students around her. Five more gone. And in another flash, not even that. Izuku landed on his feet from where he had jumped to avoid the flail of light that had taken the last four of his classmates, green lightning flickering around him. He heard the thundering of the shoes the police wore as they raced down the street, pros flanking them. He heard the yells of Present Mic, could see the fog of Midnight’s quirk in action, but could only focus on the face of the man who had single handedly taken out his entire class.

“And here I thought this class was supposed to be a tough one to beat. They told me that it would take all of my energy and their offered resources to take even part of them down. But well, whatever. Easier job for me.” The villain loomed over, a smile splitting his face. “The League sends their regards,” and in a flash of light- 

Midoriya slowly regained consciousness, blinking slowly as the world came into focus. But not even then could he see properly. It was as if the world was blurred, and he only saw indistinct shapes moving in and out of his vision. He heard voices, none of which he recognized.

“Oh, he’s beautiful, Summer,” a male voice said in a soft tone. Izuku felt himself shifted, and he realized he was being cradled in the arms of someone. A delicate kiss was placed on his forehead, before holding he was hugged gently. He heard small, lighter footsteps step on the floor. The man bent down and when he stood up right, he held something in his arms. “Yang,” the voice said, “this is your new baby brother,” and Izuku’s mind immediately shut down. What? Last he checked he was seventeen, but he was suddenly a baby? Things were making less and less sense. He began to struggle, but the arms around him tightened.

“Hush, my little rose, it’s okay, I’m here.” He tensed slightly at the familiar words, but relaxed soon after. This woman’s voice was also soft, but sounded drained, he noted. Even still, it was warm and comforting, like one might imagine a summer breeze to sound like. A fourth and final figure came into view, footsteps heavy and slightly uneven.

“Ya, ya, the little guy’s cute and all, I guess.” His voice was rough and scratchy.

“Qrow, put that away!” the voice of the first man sounded, sharp and disapproving. Qrow gave a low chuckle before a clink was heard.

“Alright, I won’t drink around the new kid Tai.”

“You really shouldn’t drink at all,” the woman said. Izuku quickly lost focus on the conversation when a tiny finger poked his cheek, and he scrunched up his face in a show of discomfort. A tiny voice bubbled in amusement, though it did not say anything, and the finger gave his cheek another poke.

The woman gave a small laugh, before shifting Izuku slightly to accommodate the tiny figure of the young girl. “Yang, don’t tease your brother. Now, let’s see, you need a name, and with those beautiful green eyes of yours, I think I have the perfect one in mind.” She bent her head to give him another gentle kiss. “My Viridian Rose, welcome to our family.”


	2. As Children

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Introducing: the students of Beacon before they get into the school!

It took a while, months, for Izuku to organize all of his thoughts. He and his class (what had happened to them?) had been attacked by a villain who might have been sent by the League of Villains. The villain's quirk must have done something to turn him into a baby. It was as if, Izuku thought, the villain had reset his life. As time passed, he learned the names of the people in the house (his house, his home), and slowly adjusted to his new life. There was his mother, Summer Rose, who was very kind and always warm and always spoke her words with a warm and comforting smile. His father was TaiYang Xiao Long, who seemed to be a happy man, with a tendency to make jokes. He had an older sister now, Yang Xiao Long, who really liked to spend time around him. She was a bit loud, but he liked her anyway. Occasionally, a man named Qrow Branwen would pop in and out of the house, almost always slightly tipsy. Izuku (Viridian, he told himself) always made sure to make a show of scrunching up his face whenever his uncle came close and was swaying slightly. Summer would always notice and tell Qrow off, saying that even babies can’t stand his drunken behavior. In little over a year, a new face joined their household. A tiny girl with a tuft of black hair that gave off red sheen, much like how Viridian’s gave off a green one in the right lighting. His baby sister was named Ruby Rose. 

They were a close knit family.

As he grew, Viridian started pestering his parents to teach him to read. He managed to quickly get a strong grasp on reading and started working on his writing (his fine motor skills weren't what they used to be) but before too long, he had to pause his learning. Around the time Ruby had turned five, Summer was gone. That’s what Tai told the three children, but Izuku knew what he meant. Dead. He knew enough of the creatures of Grimm and his parents' jobs to understand what risks were involved. He understood those risks all too well (sometimes, he would run his hand over his stomach, where a deadly wound graced his mentor's side, where a spike of earth pierced the lax body of a silver suited man). They erected a pedestal with Summer’s name on it overlooking a cliff and one night, when Ruby and Yang had already fallen asleep, he stepped out of their room and walked across the hall to his parents' (dad’s) room and climbed onto the bed where his father sat. The two sat in a thick silence before Viridian spoke.

“It’s okay dad. I am here. When I grow up, I’m going to be the best huntsman in the world, so I can protect everyone,” he said in a quiet voice. Tai gently put his arm around his son and hugged him close. “I’ll help you keep our family safe, dad.” The two fell asleep together that night, one comforted by the warm presence beside him that reminded him so much of his wife, the other resolved to keep his family safe from thence forth.

Almost as if his declaration to protect had triggered it, a week or so later he was having an argument with Yang, and his semblance made its debut. Yang had foolishly taken Ruby out into the woods while he and their dad were out and it was only thanks to their uncle that the two were safe and alive. Viridian, despite being a year younger than her was chewing her out for her actions. She insisted she knew what she did was wrong, but Viridian knew his sister was brash at the best of times and when he tried to get his point across, he stomped his foot on the ground and a thrum of energy filled his leg. A cloud of dust kicked up, and when Tai rushed outside to see what had rattled the ground, he found a stunned Yang and a crater in the ground where Viridian lay crumpled, his leg broken.

After the whole ordeal was over and Viridian had his leg healed, he lay on his bed contemplating the day's events. This was the first time something from his past had returned. He had wondered if he would be able to develop a semblance, and what that semblance would be. It was comforting to find out that he retained One for All. He focused on the thrum of power, turning it on to the barest trickle. He felt 1% of the power fill his veins, running like fire under his skin. He quickly shut it off, not wanting to over exert himself in his young and fragile body. Even with an aura that could heal his injuries, he didn’t want to do anything that might become permanent. Izuku absentmindedly ran his hand over his right hand and arm as he drifted off to sleep, searching for scars that weren't there.

He wasn’t the only one without scars.

Across Remnant in Atlas, Weiss peered inside her twins room. He was doing it again, she thought to herself, standing in front of his mirror with his hand over his left eye, like he was trying to block something from sight, or pretending that there was something there. She cleared her throat, and he looked at her, hand pulling away from his face to uncover his blue eye. “Father says it’s time for us to come downstairs. We’re having guests over. Father’s acquaintances, or something like that. We need to be down in five minutes.” He nodded in response, walking briskly past her. Weiss quickened her pace to keep up with him. At the end of the hall, Winter waited for them, the young teen as looking as strict as always.

“I expect you two to be on your best behavior. The Gossamer family is rich and powerful, we want them on our side,” she lectured as she straightened Weiss’ dress and smoothed the lapels of Feuer’s coat. “They have a daughter, you two better make her feel as welcome as possible, do you understand?” The two muttered their agreement before Winter gave them light smacks on their shoulders. “And don’t mutter. Present yourselves as the proper heir and heiress of this family that father expects you to be.”

“Yes Winter,” they chorused, clearer this time. Winter nodded her head stiffly and turned to head down the grand staircases where the two families waited in the drawing room. Weiss would not have noticed Feuer stumble had he not bumped into her, and the sharp and biting words on her tongue died when she saw his face, eyes wide and disbelieving staring at the young Gossamer heiress. In turn, the black haired girl stared at Weiss’ twin with equally wide and surprised eyes, before quickly schooling her face into a more neutral one.

Their father was talking. “Yes, and these are the twins, the heirs to my company, Weiss and Feuer. Children, this is the Gossamer family, and their daughter, Creu. Why don’t you show her around while the adults talk? Yes, good,” he spoke without looking for a response. His words were law in their house. The girl stood up from the chair she had perched on and followed the twins out into the hall. When the door to the drawing room closed behind the three of them, she whirled to face Feuer.

“Shoto?” she asked in a quiet and unbelieving voice.

Weiss was confused. “Who?” Beside her, Feuer broke into an uncharacteristic smile. Creu’s hands came up to cover her mouth as tears glistened at the corners of her eyes and she took in deep and shuddering breaths.

Feuer’s mismatched eyes flickered to meet his sisters. “Weiss,” he started, “do you think Klein would get us dessert from the kitchen early if we asked nicely enough?” Weiss narrowed her eyes in suspicion, but the young seven year old was much too tempted by the idea of dessert to follow through with her suspicions and decided to play along. She shrugged and turned to the kitchens, backing into an adjacent corridor and waited just out of sight, listening.

“I can’t believe you’re really here!” Creu said in an elated voice the second she believed Wiess to be gone. Feuer chuckled, and Weiss carefully looked at the two. Creu had her hand up at her brother's left eye, her thumb gently brushing the skin under it. Creu started to laugh. “But your hair! It’s completely white!”

Feuer joined her laughter with soft chuckles. “I suppose it would be odd if my two parents with their pure white hair gave birth to someone who didn’t share their defining trait like the rest of their children.” Weiss started to back out further down the corridor, thoroughly confused. She would just get herself some desserts and ponder the conversation in confusion.

The last she heard was Creu snickering and asking Feuer if he would like “ to do something about it?” By the time Weiss returned with Klein at her side holding a silver platter of small desserts, the Gossamer heiress held a bottle of red dye that Wiess had no idea might have come from and Feuer was dragging her down the hall looking for a suitable bathroom to use. Weiss took that to mean the desserts were all hers, and quickly started to eat the small treats. Later that night, when the two showed up to dinner, Feuer had half of his hair dyed a bright red hue, and their father nearly started yelling at him in front of the Gossamers. Instead he gritted his teeth and in a low and threatening voice asked what had happened. Her twin merely shrugged his shoulders and said he thought the red would make him a more striking figure, and with the most deadpan face asked if that wasn’t what Father wanted. Creu’s parents did think that the half-tone hair color did make him very eye-catching, and in the end their father really had no reason to argue about it beyond it sticking out like a sore thumb in their home of cool blues and silvers. As they sat at the table as food was carried onto the table, Weiss thought she heard Creu say in an amused voice “You always had a penchant for making your father mad,” under her breath, but resolved to leave the two to their own devices. If Feuer didn’t want to be heir with her, then she would make sure that she was the perfect heir to the Schnee family name. 

Blake tightened her grip on the wooden pole of her sign, slowly making her way to the front of the crowd of faunus. She squeezed past a few men and she found herself at the front of the protest. She knew that if the faunus just refused to back down, the humans would see what they stood for. She excitedly looked around, her gaze landing on another girl, about her age, standing at the edge of the rally. She had green hair, a hunched figure, and her tongue poked out of her mouth. Blake started to walk towards the girl, eager to find another ally she could talk to. “Hey!” she said in a bright voice, “Are you here for the protest too?”

The other girl looked at the young cat faunus with large green eyes. “No, kero,” she said in a curt manner.

Blake's blood almost immediately began to boil. “What? Why not?”

The girl put a finger to her chin, “You guys are putting the blame of a few people on an entire race. They will start to do the same, kero. I understand that some humans are rather narrow minded, but I try to just ignore them.”

“What? Humans are bad! All of them! They are the ones who are being mean to us! What we’re doing is just!” Her voice steadily increased in volume. Blake didn’t understand how another faunus could be so blind to what the humans have been doing to their people. Just as she was about to launch into a tirade, another young girl ran up to them.

“Frosch! Come on, we’re leaving soon,” the girl grabbed onto Frosch’s hand and Blake got a good look at her. Human, with short brown hair and what looked like a permanent blush upon her cheeks. Her grip tightened around the sign she still held.

Before the two walked away, Frosch turned to look at the other faunus. “I don’t like having to stand by when there is an opportunity to help, but I think you need to realize what you’re really doing and where all this is going to take you first. This isn’t justice,” and with those final words, she turned around and moved on from the protest.

When Ren and Nora were on the road away from their destroyed home, they stopped in a small town. While Ren stood in front of a food vendor, trying to bargain for a meal for the two of them, Nora caught sight of a young boy sitting at the edges of the steps leading to a house. He had wild purple hair, and heavy eyes that looked tired and drained. Ren approached her with a small and disappointed shrug, having been unable to obtain anything to eat, and Nora tugged on his sleeve, pointing at the boy. Ren seemed to contemplate the idea. They were struggling enough as it was, but he, nor Nora, wanted another child like themselves to suffer anymore then they had to. The pair started to approach him, when a young girl ran up to him. She had purple hair as well, though it was a much darker color, and was carrying a small box and a worn instrument. She set the box down at the feet of the boy and then sat down next to him. The guitar was a bit too big for her, but she adjusted it as best she could and began to strum the strings. Ren and Nora could only stare and listen as an echoing melody filled the marketplace. It was beautiful, and before too long, the box they placed down started to fill with bits of money as passerbys took pity on the young boy and girl. Ren tugged at Nora’s ragged shirt and pulled her towards a small bench to sit on, and Nora soon fell asleep leaning against her friend’s shoulder, lulled to rest by the soothing music.

Hours later, she felt someone poke her arm. She jumped awake, and locked eyes with the two children from the staircase. “We’re sorry for startling you,” the boy said in a low voice. She glanced at Ren, who had also fallen asleep, and gently woke him up. For a minute, the two pairs of children started at each other, before the dark haired girl pulled something out of her pocket.

“Here,” she said, pressing it into Ren’s hands and Nora bent her head to see what it was. In his hands, he held a not small amount of lien. He looked at the children in shock.

“We can’t accept this,” he started before he was cut off.

“Just take it. Buy yourself some food, you two have both obviously been hungry for a while, and she,” the girl gestured towards Nora, who shied away, leaning into Ren’s side, “looks nearly malnourished, as if she hasn’t had a meal in months, if not more.” Nora looked down at her wrists, studying the prominent bones under her skin. It was a very accurate observation. She barely got enough food before the attack, now they had to split what scraps they got. She looked into Ren’s eyes, who seemed to come into a realization. He had lived in a family that was well off. Nora had not. The purple haired boy sighed.

“If you really don’t want it, then at least come with us. We’re getting some food after Radio returns the guitar she borrowed today.” With that, he turned around with the girl, Radio, following. Nora looked up at Ren, who looked back with conflicted eyes, the revelation and realization of Nora’s malnourishment and hunger still reeling about his mind. His eyes hardened and took a determined look and the two stood up and ran to catch up with the other children. The small shop they stopped at was owned by a kindly older woman who let them sit behind the counter at the oven for warmth and they shared a treat Orchid called pancakes. Nora was instantly in love. At the end of the day, the two had a small sealed pouch with some bread, a pocket of lien, and two friends who waved them goodbye as they moved onward. 

Pyrrha was walking by her favorite park when she heard a loud explosion. She tensed and immediately ran down the path leading to the center of the park, and when she got there, she saw three boys, probably around her age of ten, grouped up together and in a fight. One had his arms up as if he were protecting his face, the skin a strange texture. Another had a bit of a stupid look on his face, but she watched as a yellow aura flickerd around his body, and he shook his head as if to clear it, running his hands through his hair as sparks flew off. The last boy had a menacing look on his face and held his hands out at his sides, standing in a low fighting stance. “Hey!” she cried, getting their attention. The last boy with ashy blond hair scoffed and rolled his eyes. The red haired one gave her a toothy grin (she noticed his teeth were decidedly sharp) as she closed the distance between them. “You really shouldn’t be fighting one another. What happened? I heard an explosion.”

The red haired boy only gave her a wider grin, before explaining. “Well, we aren't fighting. We’re training! We’re going to become hunters when we grow up, so we have to make sure our skills are as good as they can be.”

The boy with the yellow aura nodded in agreement. “Ashen’s semblance can make explosions, and Forte can make his skin into like armor, so they’ve been sparring. No one’s getting hurt, we’re all friends here, don’t worry!.”

Ashen gave a louder scoff. “Like hell we’re friends, fucking—” here Pyrrha stopped listening, prefering to avoid swearing all together, though Ashen certainly seemed like he had a penchant for it.

“Hey,” Forte suddenly spoke. “Aren't you Pyrrha Nikos?” She nodded. “Whoa dude, cool! We saw your last tournament, that was a really awesome win! So manly, err, womanly.”

“Well, thank you,” she replied, still unused to the praise.

“Hey no problem. Are you planning on becoming a huntress? You’d make a pretty big name for yourself, well, more than the one you have right now. I’m Forte, that’s Thunder and Ashen. It’s really cool to meet you.”

She smiled. “Well, you too.” The city’s clock began to toll. “Well, I should probably get home soon. Maybe I’ll see you around,” she said before turning and leaving. She heard Ashen curse, “Fucking red heads,” and the other two boys laughed. She thought at how well they seemed to work together, even if their personalities clashed. One day, she thought, she would meet someone who’d be willing to be her friend and not hold her up on a pedestal, but on equal ground like the three boys on the park were with each other.

Jaune sometimes wished he had a way to separate himself from his big family. No matter how much he liked all of them, seven sisters was a lot to deal with. While standing in line with his sisters and mother at the market, his eyes fell upon two dark haired boys laughing with one another. One boy was miming something, pointing his elbow at his friend, before breaking out in laughter. They walked away briefly before returning with a length of rope. The second boy adjusted the rectangular glasses he wore and started waving his arms in a chopping motion,speaking in a loud and clear voice.

“Ryder, I suggest if you want to retain something close to your previous style of combat, we should find some way to shoot this rope in a direction, perhaps something akin to a grappling gun?”

He nodded. “Hey good thinking Indigo. Let’s ask that shopkeeper if he has anything we could work with. Man, I’m glad we ended up at the same school, I can’t wait to go to Beacon and start training to be hunters. We’d be an awesome team. With your speed, and my agility, we’d do pretty well,” he said, his face pulling into a wide smile.

“Yes, I agree. We are already well on our way to becoming heroes.”

Juane didn’t listen to the rest of the conversation. A hero, that would be such a cool thing to be. His family has long told stories of the heroes in their family line, he could be the next one. Beacon Academy, he’d be sure to get there too!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here we are: the characters of team RWBY and JNPR and how they met some of their future classmates at Beacon.  
The names I've settled on are: Ashen Smoke, Ryder Agilis, Thunder Blitz, Forte Crest, Viridian Rose, Feur Schnee, Indigo Fleet, Flyte Recherche, Radio Pulse, Orchid Hypnos, Creu Gossamer, and Frosch Thorne  
There are time skips between some of the meetings. The first two happen when Viridian is six, and Feur is seven. The protest occurs maybe a year after that. The attack on Ren and Nora's village is about when they are nine, Pyrrha meets the boys at age ten, and finally in the last part, everyone is about eleven or twelve.  
Anyways, I hope you guys liked this longer chapter, feel free to leave comments or suggestions, and I'll be back with the next chapter sometime next week. Next time: The arrival to Beacon Academy!


	3. A Beacon for Heroes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to Beacon! People meet again and teams are put together!

Viridian stood in his room, giving it one more cursory glance. He had started packing for the move into Beacon’s dorms the previous week, and he was pretty sure he had everything that he needed. He gave the room one more cursory glance before nodding in satisfaction. Just as he was about to sit down and relax, he heard an insistent knock at his door. His father, he thought as he got up from his bed to open it up. He was the only one who bothered to knock in his family. That and Ruby was out in town and Yang was up to who knows what.

As soon as he opened the door, his father started talking. “So I just got a call from the Vale department, Ruby was in a fight with a criminal and I need to go pick her up.”

Viridian just blinked. “What,” he questioned, processing what his father had just said. Tai opened his mouth again to repeat what he just said but his son stopped him. “Let me get my coat, I’m coming too,” he said as he turned around to grab his green coat from where it lay over a chair. “Honestly I’m the one person in this house with a brain,” he muttered under his breath. Needless to say, when the two finally got to the room Ruby was in, he was not in the best of moods. He swung open the door and without bothering to take in who exactly was in the room with his sister began to talk. “Ruby, what on earth were you thinking? Have I not told you the importance of not running head first into trouble when you don’t know what the threat is? Going to visit mom by yourself and defending yourself against beowolves is one thing, but actively seeking to join a fight is not. Do you really think I want to hear from dad that you’ve been in a fight literally the night before I leave for school?” Someone cleared their throat and Viridian looked up, catching the eyes of a silver haired man and a woman with a stern expression on her face. He looked down to where his sister had hunched her shoulders to make herself a smaller target. “Fine, we’ll finish this at home.” He gave a heavy sigh, “Oh, what am I going to do when I’m in Beacon with Yang and you’re going to be by yourself?”

“Actually, she won’t be by herself,” said the man. It was then Viridian realized who exactly was in the room. 

“Ohmyoum Headmaster Ozpin, Professor Goodwitch, I am terribly sorry,” out of reflex, he began to bow in apology, before straightening up. Then what the headmaster said caught up to his mind. “Wait, why isn’t Ruby going to be by herself,” here he directed his gaze back at his sister. 

“I’m, uh,” she started, her voice diminishing in volume and rising in speed as she continued to speak. “I’m kinda going to start going to Beacon with you and sis tomorrow?” Viridian let his head fall into his hands with a groan. Behind him, his father moved past him to start talking to the two teachers and he moved to lean against the table next to his sister. “Viridian, I’m sorry,” Ruby spoke, breaking the silence between the two. 

He sighed, before giving her a wry smile. “It’s okay. I know you’re going to be getting into fights as a huntress, but right now you’re still fifteen, and that’s young, too young. What we do to protect others is dangerous, and it can permanently harm you,” he said, clenching his right fist, then opening it to look at the unscarred hand. “Mom sacrificed a lot to keep people safe, to keep us safe, and I don’t want you to have to do that too.” Ruby looked down, and Viridian ruffled her hair. “But that’s why I’m here right? You need a hunter to protect the huntress.” The two smiled at each other as Tai wrapped up his conversation.

The next morning, the two rushed to pack all of Ruby’s things while Yang waited in their designated ship with her friends. She gave a good scream when the two walked up the steps and put two sets of luggage down. “Oh, I can’t believe my baby sister is going to Beacon with me! You’ll be the bee's knees!”

Viridian laughed as Ruby and Yang began their sister banter of the day, only to yelp in shock as a blond boy in simple armor hurled right next to Yang’s boots. Then everything dissolved into pandemonium. When they landed he waved off his sisters so he could go grab their luggage, before passing it off to one of the school workers who told him that she’d take it to their sleeping accommodations for the night. He was just thanking her when he heard an explosion, and whirled around and immediately vowed to never let Ruby leave his eyes. In the center of a slightly smoking crater was Ruby and another two students, one in white, the other in a deep royal blue. He ran to his sisters side as the white haired girl started yelling at her and immediately knelt down next to her, checking her for any sustained injuries. “Ruby, are you okay? What happened?”

There was a gasp of indignation. “What happened? I’ll tell you what happened! This girl has no basic concept of safety and needs to watch where she’s going!” the voice of the girl was back in full lecture mode.

Viridian sighed. “Look, I’m sure what happened was an accident an—” his voice immediately cut off. He had lifted his head to look up to face the two students, one with long white hair pulled into a ponytail, the other with two tones of color, just like… “Shoto?” he whispered under his breath as two pairs of wide eyes stared at each other, green meeting blue and grey.

“Izuku?” he replied in an equally soft voice, and Viridian’s eyes began to fill up with tears. But this was no place or time to cry. He blinked, trying to keep them down, and focused on helping Ruby to her feet. She assured him that she was fine, and swiftly made her departure away from the tense atmosphere. The other girl followed suit to find where the rest of her luggage had gone with a snide comment about imbeciles who don’t bother to learn the rules, leaving the two boys in the still smoking crater. Shoto quietly offered his hand to help Viridian up and then gestured to an empty stone bench. The two sat in silence for less than a minute before the tears finally began to run down Viridian’s face and he threw his arms around his friend’s shoulders. Shoto quickly returned the hug, no trace of the hesitance that he would have once had.

“I can’t believe you’re really here,” Viridan eventually said after calming down. “I haven’t had any clue that what happened really happened. I thought it might have been a dream I had.”

“It’s not a dream, it’s real, and you’re here.” And Shoto gave him a soft smile. “And we’re not the only ones.” Viridian’s face lit up with hope and happiness. “I know Momo, though she goes by the name of Creu. Our families are business acquaintances, so we’ve been friends for a long time now. I haven’t met anyone else, but maybe we can find them as well.”

Viridian gave a wide smile. “Well, then I’m glad I found you.” He held his hand out. “Hi, I’m Viridian Rose. It’s nice to meet you again.”

“And I’m Feuer Schnee.” The two shook hands and shared a smile. Then the two got up and walked into the audience hall and immediately found Feuer’s sister (Weiss, his friend supplied) throw a brochure into Ruby’s face as Yang watched in interest. Viridian gave Feuer a smile before running towards the three girls, intent on breaking up the potential fight before it started. Feuer felt a light tap at his shoulder and he turned to face his old friend.

“Was that Izuku I just saw?” Creu asked insistently. Feuer nodded then gave a start when Creu grabbed his wrist and started dragging him towards the group. As soon as they reached their destination she latched onto their friend’s shoulder and whirled him around to face her. His eyes lit up as he was pulled into a hug. “Ohhhh, I missed you! I can’t believe you’re actually here!” she spoke excitedly.

Yang cocked an eyebrow at her brother being hugged by a very beautiful girl and let out a teasing whistle. “Wow Viridian, I didn’t know you had it in you,” she said grinning. Next to her, Ruby gagged at the thought of her older brother doing, whatever it was Yang was implying.

Viridian just glared at her. “Creu is an old friend. We haven’t seen each other in a long time, that’s all.”

Weiss scoffed. “The heir of the Gossamer family associated with this family? A likely story.” Her twin glared at her in a silent warning to be nice that she promptly ignored by averting her eyes. 

Creu finally released the boy from her hug and faced the other heiress. “With whom I associate with is none of your business, Schnee,” she said in a cold tone. “Besides, Viridian is someone I hold in very high regard. He’s always been extremely kind and supportive.” Wiess huffed before stalking off. 

The reunions had only just begun.

While Ruby and Yang set up their sleeping bags at one side of the room, Feuer, Creu, and Viridian set theirs at the other side. Just as they were about to begin exchanging stories, two figures joined them “Mind if we sleep here, kero?” The group burst into excited noises as two girls beamed back at them. Froshe Thorne and Flyte Recherche they re-introduced themselves as, and the circle they quickly set up soon expanded even further as four figures joined them. Froshe commented that Radio Pulse, Orchid Hypnos, Indigo Fleet and Ryder Agilis made a very color coordinated group with their purples and more monochrome color schemes, setting the group into fits of laughter. They were yelled at to stop being so noisy and chatty, only for the volume to increase nearly tenfold as an angry blond and a few others stepped forward. Viridan rubbed at his tears and smiled at his old friend, a redhead and a blond at his sides. With Ashen Smoke, Thunder Blitz and Forte Crest, their circle easily became packed with twelve people all talking in rapid voices trading stories. Viridan lay on his back as Indigo recounted his story of meeting Ryder on his first day of school, complete with his signature choppy arm motions, smiling happily to himself. His family was coming back together, he thought. The lights went out and the group quickly began to huddle closer together, determined not to lose sight of one another again.

The next morning, everyone woke up to find that the circle they had constructed the previous night had been broken as throughout the night people began to pile on top of one another. Viridian had been using Feuer as a pillow, and Flyte had done the same to him. Creu and Radio were tangled together, and everyone else was in a similar situation. They stumbled through the motions of getting ready for the day and made their way to the dining hall, where Viridian was immediately pulled aside by Yang to be interrogated (“How on earth do you know so many pretty people? I can’t believe you’ve been holding out on me! I trusted you and Ruby to be the pure innocent ones of our family”) while Radio and Orchid were assaulted by a hug from a red headed girl who was being chased by a boy with black hair and pink highlights. “I can’t believe you’re here! Do you remember me? I’m Nora and that’s Ren! You guys introduced me to pancakes which are,” she took a giant bite out of one of the large pancakes on her plate and continued her rapid fire speech, not even bothering to give the two a chance to respond, “the best things in the world!” 

While she ate, Orchid finally got his words in. “I’m glad you’re doing better than you were,” Then he stood and headed towards the lockers to prepare for the first of many trials at the school. Nora gave a happy coo at the words before turning her attention back to Ren, discussing some sort of secret signal she wanted to use. The group followed Orchid and walked in groups to the locker room. They slipped The last parts of their battle gear on and secured their weapons. As Viridian looked around the room, he noticed that everyone’s outfit kept elements of their hero costumes, much like he did. Flyte’s color scheme had stayed the same, though her bodysuit had been switched out for a skit and leggings, but her boots that had small rocket boosters in them looked very reminiscent of her hero costume’s boots. Indigo’s outfit was practically the same, though the large clunky armor around his legs where his engines used to be had been slimmed down considerably. Ashen had even kept a version of his gauntlets, no doubt packed with fire dust. 

Viridian gave a start as he felt a pair of arms latch around his own. “Yang doesn’t want to be in a team with me,” Ruby wailed as she dug her face into his back. “Please say you will be with me! Pretty please with chocolate chip cookies on top!” Viridian looked around where his classmates were happily chatting with one another, before turning around to look down at his sister.

“Well Ruby, I think we should just see where the cards land. If they’re in your favor, then so be it. But no matter who you’re paired up with, I’m sure you’ll be in an amazing team.” Ruby pouted as Goodwitch’s voice announced for the first years to move to the cliff face. As they lined up and looked over the forest with Ozpin explaining how the partners would be determined, Viridian couldn’t help but feel a sense of deja vu. He could tell that all of his other classmates expected to hear this same sort of test come out of Aizawa-sensei's mouth. He heard the headmaster explain that the pairs were free to wait at the ruins until everyone had completed the test at which point he would send a ship out to pick everyone up, and then Viridian was tossed into the air.

As he fell towards the forest floor, he powered up One for All and aimed a punch downwards, the knock back from the punch slowing his descent, allowing him to jump from tree to tree until he safely reached the floor. He gave a leisurely stretch, adjusted the bracers on his arm, and started walking in the general direction of where he thought the ruins might be. He had only managed a few paces when he heard a low growl from behind him. Viridian spun around to face the pack of Beowolves that prowled forward, and fell into a fighting stance, green lightning flickering to life around him. The pack leaped forward and he met them with a kick, immediately taking two of the grimm out. Spinning, he aimed a punch and two others behind him, the force behind it knocking them into a tree, leaving them to crumple to the ground. Suddenly two more grim launched themselves from the trees, only these were not the black grimms he was so used to seeing, but white and blue in coloration. It roared and swiped at a few Beowolves to its side. One strike left embers in its wake, the other ice crystals. Soon, all of the grimm were gone and Viridian smiled at Feuer who stood in front of the strange grimm, which gradually faded from sight. “Hey!” he said happily, to which his new partner responded in kind. “So what was that? Your semblance?” he eagerly inquired, curiosity bubbling up.

Feuer nodded. “The Schnee family has a hereditary semblance, glyphs, and one of the glyphs allows me to summon a defeated foe. It seems that my old quirk runs through my summons, boosting them beyond an ordinary grimm.” Viridian’s mind ran with questions, but he decided they could wait for later. “To the ruins?” Feuer asked, and Viridian nodded. A white circle inscribed with designs appeared spinning in front of them. “Hop on. We’ll be able to find it faster from above.”

Elsewhere, partners were coming together. Indigo and Flyte worked their way through Ursa, Indigo with his greatsword, Flyte with knives and occasionally a boulder that she could reach. Ashen blew up a small area of trees and rained debris down where Forte delt hardened blows to the monsters. Orchid and Creu jumped from tree to tree, Orchid using the capture weapon around his neck and Creu having fashioned a similar one to use for the time being. Radio and Froshe walked leisurely towards the ruins with Radio led them through the route clearest of grimm. Ryder and Thunder laughed as they followed a ridge towards where they spotted an area of ruins, trading stories. 

At the ruins, Weiss grumbled about her fall from the sky and apparent insanity of her partner as she waited with a few other teams. Suddenly, she heard a screech and everyone reached for the weapons, looking up to where it came from. The Nevermore her partner had recklessly decided to use to catch a ride on frantically flapping its wings as a green figure bounced between platform glyphs while a figure on a white Griffon grimm slashed at its wings with dual blades. The grimm gave a cry then began to turn to black ash in the wind as the figure in blue helped the one in green onto the back of the Griffon. Once they landed on the ground, Wiess sniffed as she watched her twin hold out his hand to help his partner, the brother to her own, down from his summon. He may be able to summon before she did, but she was more concerned with upholding Father’s legacy, she thought as they picked up a black knight from a pedestal. A monstrous shriek sounded, and a large Death Stalker burst from the forest, right on the heels of Pyrrha Nikos. Everyone readied themselves to fight the armored grimm, when a boy in silver armor ran out of the forest with a girl in pink on his back. He used his greatsword to slash through a tree which the girl picked up and swung in front of the grimm as if it weighed nothing. The grimm faltered in its rampage, allowing time for the two and Pyrrha to reach the ruins where everyone waited. 

“Wow Flyte!” the green haired Rose exclaimed. “That was a good move,” he complimented, to which the girl smiled brightly at. The Death Stalker didn’t slow for long, but was stunned into stopping when a large explosion hit the creature in its side. Two more pairs ran out from the trees, one attacking the grimm head on while the other two bound the Stalker’s tail and pincers with some kind of rope. With a final explosion, the grimm gave a shriek and faded from existence. The four approached the ruins, and Wiess looked at the Gossamer heir in disapproval. She could have been partnered with her, someone befitting her class and skills, but instead, she willingly stood with her brother and his partner’s friends. Feuer turned around to face the cliffs backing the ruins and nudged his partner, who started waving. Descending the cliffs were four mores students, which meant there were only that many still out in the forest somewhere. 

“Kero, we had a good time I think,” a girl with dark green hair. A faunus, she realized, with frog-like features and tongue that she used to grab a chess piece.

A boy with black hair finished retracting a grappling hook into its holster on his arm and grinned at the group. “Ya, Radio took us straight here and we avoided all of the grimm!” He held his hand out for a hi-five that the other girl in the group returned with a smile. Weiss just rolled her eyes and glanced at her own partner who was staring down at the ground and seemed to be debating with herself over something. She then felt a hand at her wrist and looked up to see Feuer who gently pulled her away.

“What do you want, Feuer?” she asked. 

He looked at the young girl in red and then back to his sister, “I think you should try to talk to her. You’re partners, and will be partners for a long time.” Feuer looked away, and he sighed. “Look, I know how hard it can be to break away from the lifestyle that Father had us grow up in, but you really should try to make some friends. They,” he hesitated, “they can really do a lot for you. You’ll find that they often will be very willing to support you and care for you. Just try, okay?” The group he had been hanging around suddenly burst into peals of laughter. A boy with purple hair and a long scarf around his neck lay on the floor, pretending to be asleep, then mimed drinking something from his hand and looked at the people around him with tired eyes, but with a smile on his face.

“Fine, I’ll try,” Weiss said and walked back over to where Ruby was. “Look, Ruby,” the girl in question looked up. “You are childish, and dim-witted, and hyperactive, and don’t even get me started on your fighting style.” Feuer glared at his sister, who cast her eyes down slightly to avoid his glare. “And I suppose I can be a bit difficult, but if you promise to quit trying to show off, I will be nicer.” The young girl brightened up. “And I am,” Weiss paused, “willing, to try and make this partner thing work, alright?”

Ruby nodded her head in excitement. “Thank you! I know we’ll be great partners! Hug!”

Wiess quickly held out a hand. “Don’t do that.”

Back at Beacon, Feuer watched his sister stand stiffly next to Ruby, who seemed to be trying to think up a conversation she could start, then directed his eyes to look at the headmaster who stood at the front of the stage with a mug in his hand. The crowd of students began to quiet down. “This year, I am proud to announce that we have six new teams joining us at Beacon. When I call your name, please come forward.” The first years shifted anxiously. “Cardin Winchester, Russel Thrush, Dove Bronzewing, Sky Lark. You retrieved the white bishop pieces, and from today will be known as team CRDL, led by Cardin Winchester.” The four boys nodded and stepped off the stage, clapping their new leader on his back.

“Creu Gossamer, Radio Pulse, Orchid Hypnos, Froshe Thorne.” Feuer gave Creu a smile in support as she and the others stepped up. “You retrieved the black bishop pieces, and will be known as team CRHT (crit, like critical), led by Creu Gossamer.” The team smiled and as they rejoined the groups off stage hugged Creu in congratulations. 

“Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos, Lie Ren. You four retrieved the white rooks, and will be known as team JNPR, led by Juane Arc.” Jaune gave a confused look and pointed at himself while Nora hugged Ren, and Pyrrha punched Jaune in the arm, sending him to the ground. Everyone laughed a little at that. 

“Viridian Rose, Indigo Fleet, Flyte Recherche, Feuer Schnee.” Viridian gave their friends a slightly nervous smile as the four headed up. “You retrieved the black rook, and will henceforth be known as team RIFF (rift), led by Viridian Rose.” Feuer, Flyte, and Indigo immediately turned to their friend and hugged him, laughing as he tried to valiantly keep his tears from spilling. Even after all this time, he was still a crier. 

“Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long. You retrieved the white knight pieces, and will be known as team RWBY, led by Ruby Rose.” Yang hugged her sister, and Viridian clapped loudly for her. Feuer looked carefully at Weiss’ expression, which seemed almost bitter and angry. He’d have to check in with her later.

“Finally, Ashen Smoke, Thunder Blitz, Ryder Agilis, Forte Crest. You four retrieved the black knights, and will be known as team STRC (strike), led by Ashen Smoke.” Ashen’s teammates cheered loudly for him, to which he responded with a glare with none of the malice behind it. “Congratulations everyone. Looks like things are shaping up to be an interesting year.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Thanks for sticking with me so far! We now have the Beacon teams together and ready to conquer Remnant!  
Don't worry, all of the other students of Class 1-A will appear, they just go to different schools and won't show until the Vytal Festival.  
As always, leave feed back in the comments, I'm happy to hear them, and I'll be some time next week with another chapter. Have a nice week!  
-Your local multi-fandom fangirl
> 
> Edit: someone helpfully pointed out that I’ve been spelling a name wrong. Feur should really have been Feuer, so I’m sorry to the German language for misspelling words!!


	4. Classmates Again

Viridian collapsed on a bed once he and his team found their assigned dorm with a deep breath. Flyte giggled and joined him on the bed. “As a team member,” she said, “I suggest to our fearless but kind considerate leader that our first order of business should be a big group hug. And then sleeping.” Everyone laughed in agreement and piled onto the bed, soaking up the comfort of being together on a team. They stayed like that for a while before Indigo finally mummerd to the group that it would probably be in everyone’s best interest to get ready for sleep. If their experiences in the hero course were any indication, the classes were likely to be exhausting and they’d want to be performing at their best. Once they all changed into their pajamas and sleepwear they stood in front of the four beds deciding where they all wanted to sleep. At the end, Flyte took the one at the far end closest to the bathroom, followed by Indigo, Feuer, and Viridian closest to the door. Just before they settled down for the night, there was a knock at the door. Indigo opened it to find team CRHT standing outside.

Froshe gave everyone a smile. “We just wanted to say good night to everyone before we went to sleep, kero.” Flyte beamed in agreement and Indigo nodded his head vigorously. 

“That is a wonderful idea, and will definitely promote good teamwork between us.” The groups laughed at the familiar and unchanged behavior of their friend, before Orchid gave them a mischievous smile and gestured to follow so that they stood in front of STRC’s room. 

Orchid knocked and spoke, “Hello?” Immediately the pop of explosions were heard.

“Go away you fucking extras and let me fucking sleep in damn peace!”

“Open the door so we can say good night,” Orchid said, power lacing his sentence. The door was pulled open to reveal a blank expression on Ashen’s face and the rest of his team behind him in fits. “You’d think he’d learn,” Orchid commented as the two teams stepped inside, sending three boys into fits of renewed laughter. Ashen snapped out of his trance when Radio tapped him with a finger and immediately his calm face morphed into one of rage. 

“Fucking Eyebags! What the hell was that!” the subject of his anger only held his hands to his lips. 

“Bro, you’ve got to calm down, people are trying to sleep,” Forte said, finally having calmed his laughter down. Ashen muttered under his breath how he was trying to sleep himself before he was rudely interrupted. Everyone exchanged hugs for the evening (Flyte managed to nab a hug from the grumpy Ashen who only said, “Fuck off Round Face,” but made no move to actually stop her) and stepped back into their rooms. Before Viridian returned though, he stopped by team RWBY’s room and after hearing a “come in” stepped inside.

“Hey sisters,” he said with a fond smile on his face. He got a hey from Yang who immediately popped back into the restroom to continue fixing her hair for the evening and Ruby gave him a tight hug beaming up at him.

“I can’t believe we’re both leaders! Dad’s going to be so hyped for us!” she squealed. From her bed, Weiss scoffed at the high pitched squeal. 

“You’re going to do great Ruby.” Viridian said, squeezing her in a hug. “Well, I just came in to say good night.” He ruffled Ruby’s hair. “Night sis. See you in the morning.”

He did not see her in the morning at the dining hall, nor did he see her when he got to Professor Port’s class. Team JNPR was also not seen in the morning. It was only just as class was about to start that the eight ran through the doors and slid into their seats. Feur noticed that Weiss looked a little put out that morning (more than usual, at least) as she took a seat next to him, carefully laying out a notebook and pen to record the lecture. Throughout the entire class, she stared at her new team leader with a look of disdain, her eyes slowly narrowing into a glare. At that point, he wasn't the only one who had noticed. Viridian was watching Weiss carefully, ready to jump to his sister’s protection. When Professor Port asked for a volunteer, Feuer watched as she eagerly stepped up. 

He knew the face that she wore. The face of someone who isolated themselves on a pedestal so that they look nothing but perfect for their family. He wore it for years, and watched as she wore it. He and Creu spent years trying to pull her away from the life she set out for herself, but the closest they ever got was when she decided to be a huntress, but even then, it seemed she was only doing it for father, not for herself. She walked back into the classroom having changed into her combat outfit and stood opposite the cage, rapier at the ready. Her team began to cheer in support, but she only narrowed her eyes in response. With a swing of an axe, a Boarbatusk was freed and immediately began to charge. Weiss aimed a slash at its side as she rolled out of the way, only for the metal of her sword to clink against the tough armor it grew. 

“Weiss! Aim for its belly, there’s no armor there!” he heard Ruby call out. Besides him, Viridian nodded with a proud look on his face. He must have helped Ruby learn about the Grimm in school previously. 

Feuer thought that was a great tactic that Ruby just gave Weiss. She clearly, did not. “Stop telling me what to do!” his twin yelled at her, leaving the younger girl to droop in her seat and cast her eyes downward, back hunching to make herself look smaller. Still, Weiss took the opportunity when she flipped the Boarbatusk onto its back and stabbed it through its soft belly, before storming out, Ruby following her, calling for her to wait.

Feuer sighed in disappointment, and glanced at Viridian, who looked visibly upset. He put his hand on his friend’s shoulder and said, “I’ll talk to her again.” Viridian nodded, then glanced over to where Yang was. She didn’t look that concerned with what had happened, Feuer thought. Though it looked like it stayed on Viridian’s mind the entire day as they went through their classes. Weiss always took the seat furthest from Ruby, who sat dejectedly in her seat, only taking a few sparse notes during the lessons. Only at the end of the day when the team sat in their room did Viridian confide to the team why he felt so upset. 

“When I was young, not here, but growing up in our world, I was never really given a chance to prove myself. I was always pushed away, and it wasn’t until UA that I got that chance. I’m lucky to have my past experiences to help me now, but Ruby doesn’t have that.” Flyte gave Viridian a hug, Indigo joining them in a quiet discussion as Feuer backed out of their room to find Weiss. He walked around the school before finding her standing next to Professor Port, head cast downward in thought. The teacher noticed him and waved him over. He stopped right next to his sister who glanced upward before looking back down.

“Ah, the other young Schnee! How are you?” the professor asked.

“Doing well, thank you.”

“How is your team?”

A smile bloomed across Feuers face. “They’re great. Indigo, though he seems really strict, really cares about us, and Flyte has a really positive outlook. And while Viridian is a year younger than us, he has a very strategic mind. I noticed in class today that he seems to have passed on a bit of his knowledge to his little sister.” Weiss looked back up, and Feuer turned to look at her. “I think you were being hard on Ruby. You don’t know her. Viridian and I think she deserves to have a chance to prove to you what she’s capable of, despite her age. She got into this school through her merit, just like you and I, and everyone else who started this year did.”

Weiss looked thoughtful. “Thank you Professor. I’ll think about what you said. Feuer, can we talk?” Feuer nodded and the two found a bench they could sit on. They sat for a minute, looking up at the rising moon, its shattered form illuminating the darkening sky. “Feuer,” he nodded, “you know how I once said I wanted a bunk bed? But Father refused and kept us separated, moving us further apart over the years?” He nodded. After he started actively avoiding his father's actions to turn him into one of the next heirs of the family and started spending more and more time with Creu, training to become a hunter, he was moved into a separate wing from Weiss. He wished that he could have been there for her, when she decided to follow Winter, when she fought the Atlesian knight. But Father didn't care for him, turning instead to his brother Whitley instead. Weiss gave a small smile. “Ruby suggested that to make room for all of our things in our dorm, we turn our beds into bunk beds. I, I really like them.” She hesitated. “But I still don’t understand. Why are you so willing to give these people leadership? We’re the son and daughter of Jaque Schnee, one of the most powerful and wealthy men in Atlas. We have a strong semblance. Why shouldn’t we be the leaders?”

Feuer held his sister's hand in his. “Power isn’t everything. Imagine, if you will, that a man with incredible power and respect controlled everything. He has everything, wealth, influence, power, everything that puts him high in society's eyes. Now imagine someone who has power, but can’t use it without incredible loss on his part, but he uses it anyways because he believes that’s the right thing to do, and he challenges everything that the man believes in. Who do you think should be the leader?” Weiss looked at him with teary eyes. “Should we, the people who have been given everything be leaders, or should the people who are willing to fight, no matter the odds against them, for the greater good?”

Weiss wrapped her arms around him burying her face into his chest. They stayed like that for a while before Weiss dried her tears, stood and walked towards the dining hall. Feuer watched as she grabbed a mug and poured some coffee into it, probably so she could finish all of the homework she had gotten today before she hesitated, staring at the coffee table, then swiping a handful of cream and sugar. Feuer followed her back to her dorm where she quietly stepped inside. After a moment, she walked back out, no mug in sight. Before closing the door, she said, “Ruby, I always wanted bunk beds as a kid,” and then closed the door and stood alone in the hall with her twin, a soft smile on her face. “Feuer, I’m going to try my best to be a good teammate.”

He smiled in support. “My door is always open if you need someone to talk to.” They hugged, and Weiss returned to grab her own coffee while Feuer returned to his dorm. When he opened his door, he found that the room had been rearranged and was mostly decorated.

Indigo was the first to speak when he came in. “Feuer! What do you think? We have rearranged the room, but it is still a bit of a tight fit. We’ve been debating what the best way to remedy that. Do you have any suggestions?”

“How about bunk beds?” he said, his last conversation still in his mind. Flyte clapped her hands in excitement and immediately touched the wood of a bed making it lift into the air. Viridian also eagerly grabbed a second bed and effortlessly hoisted it over his head. 

“We probably need something to stick these beds on top of each other,” Indigo commented. “Or I could just cut off the posts so that it’s flat and can rest on top of eachother, and then we can bind it together with rope.” They did just that and settled in for the night, smiling as they drifted off to sleep. 

The next morning Feuer saw that Weiss, though she looked out of her comfort zone, sat and interacted with her teammates and Ruby was excitedly gesturing around the room. Viridian squeezed his hand in thanks and shot him a wide and grateful smile, one that made his heart beat just a little too quickly. They sat at a table with teams CRIT and STRC, discussing the previous day’s lessons and the upcoming ones when a cry was heard across the room. Their heads swiveled to look at their fellow first year grasp the ear of a rabbit faunus tightly in his hand. Froshe narrowed her eyes in distaste before standing up and walking briskly towards the bully and his victim. When she got there, her tongue wiped out and slapped his cheek so hard that his head was knocked back and he let go of the girl’s ear in shock. Froshe immediately grabbed the girl's hand and tugged her away. “Dirty faunus,” they heard him yell at the two, to which Froshe ignored. Later that day, when Cardin was called up for a battle by Professor Goodwitch, Ashen stuck his hand up to volunteer to fight. He claimed that he wanted to prove that he was stronger than the jerk, but the teams all saw him tense up and glower in the boy’s direction during breakfast when he yelled at the two girls. The teams winced. Cardin was about to be utterly wrecked. 

The fight really couldn’t be called a fight. Five seconds in and Cardin was flying out of the ring from a big explosion. Ashen flipped the boy off then marched back to his seat, throwing himself into it, and a maniacal smile on his face. “That was fucking fun.” Forte gave him a hug, cooing how that proved that he truly cared for them while the rest of the group sniggered at Ashen’s attempt to remove Forte’s arms from around him. Professor Goodwitch cleared her throat and glared up at Ashen. “What? It was a fight and I won. It’s his fucking fault that he lost so fucking miserably.” 

Thunder snickered under his breath, speaking so the professor wouldn’t hear. “And Ashen just wanted to put that boy in his rightful place: at his feet!” The teams around him burst into quiet laughter.

The professor looked up at them, signaling the teams to contain themselves, and sighed. “Another match then. How about Jaune and Cardin? As long as you’re up for another fight, Winchester.” The boy sneered at Jaune, who cowed down, before standing up and walking down to the ring.

That fight wasn’t nearly as much fun to watch. Jaune was thoroughly beat as he threw himself at Cardin with reckless abandon, not bothering to think of strategy. Viridian studiously took notes of every point where Jaune could have gotten the upper hand, and STRC held their heads in their hands, unable to even watch the fight. The other watched JNPR as they winced at their leader being beaten in the duel. At the end of the class and everyone filed out to change back into their uniforms, people quietly discussed the matches of the day. Nora was upbeat and Viridian quietly passed his sheet of notes to Jaune, and Jaune seemed resigned, never quite meeting the eyes of the people around him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! As always, thanks for sticking with me for this chapter, and I hope you liked it! I'm going to try to get one more chapter out before Thanksgiving break, but no guarantees.
> 
> Edit: I’ve been mega swamped with college applications and my portfolio work, so expect the next chapter after thanksgiving break. Sorry, but I swear I’ll make this chapter a little longer, maybe even get a second done!
> 
> Anyways, if you have questions or comments, please leave a comment down below, and I'll do my best to answer them!
> 
> See you soon for Jaune's character arc!
> 
> Your local multi fandom fangirl


	5. Students and Battles

Something was up with Jaune. The night after his defeat in the ring, he showed up to breakfast and went to sit with Cardin and his team of all people. Pyrrha looked like something was on her mind, but didn’t say anything. Nora and Ren seemed to suspect something was up but knew nothing of what was going on. So as they watched Jaune struggle to keep up with CRDL, their heads turned to face Orchid and Radio, eyes screaming for them to do something. So Orchid gave a heavy sigh and resigned himself to do some digging around. He expected Cardin to have coerced Jaune into a bad position due to his spectacular loss the previous day. He did not expect, while out in the Forever Fall Forest, for Radio to tell him that she heard that Jaune had snuck his way into Beacon and had practically zero training in combat. Orchid immediately banged his head against a nearby tree. No one could possibly be that stupid. Yes, sneaking into one of the most prestigious schools for combat when one knew nothing about said combat was just the most brilliant idea in the world. Why would Jaune even try to do that? Radio looked as equally dumbfounded as Orchid felt. The two returned to where Froshe and Creu were collecting jars of sap, placing the jars they had in their box.

“So,” Orchid began. “We know why Jaune is being pushed around.”

“That’s great!” Creu said. “Why does he have this problem?”

Radio wrinkled her nose. “Because he’s an idiot and I can’t help him unless you can literally make the best teacher in the world to pound how to fight into his head after missing everything he should have learned years ago.” 

Creu and Froshe blinked. The faunus spoke up first. “I think I just heard you say that Jaune doesn’t know anything about fighting but is at this school anyways, kero.”

Orchid buried his face into his long grey scarf. “Ding ding ding, we have a winner.” 

Needless to say, the other two teams of friends reacted similarly, though there was much more cursing of the Arc’s idiocy from Ashen than the others. Viridian leaned into Feuer, muttering how he bet the notes he gave to Jaune the other day had better be read, Indigo looked ready to march over to Jaune and give him a very pointed, and probably loud, speech on his recklessness, while Thunder, Forte, and Ryder looked like they were trying very hard to keep their peels of laughter in. Creu immediately smacked them upside their heads, ordering them to calm themselves down, as it was a fairly serious matter. They immediately began to discuss what they were going to do.

“Do we help train him?”

“We could, but how?”

“Don’t look at me, my training involved an entire regime of pain.”

“Aizawa beat me into the ground, that won’t help with training Jaune.”

Ryder cautiously raised his hand to get the attention of the others. Once the room quieted down, he began to speak. “So, I know that we have a lot more training, and are probably okay to help him, but I kind of think that if he should get help from a student, it should be from someone on his team. I mean, Pyrrha is on his team. She probably could teach him fairly well.” In the end, everyone hemmed and hawed over the discussion, resolved to suggest, subtly of course, Pyrrha that she should start training her team leader (the girls had their own motivation, not that they told the boys (it involved lots of giggling a few bets)). The next time they were out in the Forever Fall Forest, the teams watched as Jaune stood his ground, and some of the group did not miss the shield arm that raised, seemingly of its own will. 

That night, as Feuer and Viridian were walking around the campus, talking and laughing in quiet tones, they heard the thud of someone falling, and the smiling voice of Pyrrha offering he hand and help to the blond haired boy who looked up at her with gratefulness in his eyes. Hers held something more. The two boys smiled at each other and left the pair to continue their training.

The next time Jaune was called up to dual, he did significantly better, and a teammate of his beamed proudly. After classes ended that Friday, Nora grabbed everyone for a trip into Vale, insisting they should all get ice cream in celebration of Jaune’s improvement. The JNPR eventually split off while Wiess dragged her team over to the docks. Something about checking out how the Vytal Festival and its preparations. The remaining three teams wandered around, admiring the things in the windows and watching as banners and balloons were hung all over the city. Just as they were crossing a street, a faunus, about their age with a monkey’s tail, nearly ran into them, two officers right on his tail. 

“Hey!” Thunder yelled, his arms flailing to regain balance. “Watch where you’re going dude!”

The faunus in question turned his head, winked, gave a wave, and was off once more.

“I wonder what that was all about,” Creu said. The group shrugged and turned a corner, only to see a young girl with a pink bow and green outfit hovering over Ruby. Ruby herself was leaning backwards and the other three were leaning away, confusion written all over their faces. 

“Sensational!” the stranger cried, bouncing excitedly. She dissolved into rapid fire speech the teams could discern before Weiss suddenly moved forward, grabbing her by the arms. As they moved closer to RWBY, Blake stepped forward, body tense. 

“Stop calling him that!”

The heiress scoffed. “Oh, I’m sorry. Do you want me to stop calling the trash can a trash can? Or this lamppost a lamppost? He clearly broke the law. Give it some time and he’ll join up with the other faunus in the White Fang.”

“You ignorant little brat!” Blake yelled before turning on her heel and marching angrily away. Weiss gave a low sound of frustration and marched up to Blake, starting what was bound to be a lasting argument. Viridian was about to step in to mediate the argument before it escalated too much, but was grabbed by the sleeve and pulled back. Radio had a firm grip on his and Feuer’s sleeve and dragged the two of them away from the girls. The rest of her team was also herding the group back up the street. 

Once they rounded the corner and were out of view, Radio whirled to face Feuer. “You better start talking some sense into your sister.”

Feuer blinked, glancing at Viridian, who shrugged. “I did. She’s been much better about Ruby.” Viridian nodded in agreement. 

Radio ground crossed her arms. “Not about Ruby. About her stance on the Faunus race.” Feuer grimaced. “You may have been too far away to hear what she said, but I heard her just fine.” She reached out and grabbed Froshe, holding her close. “She just insulted the entire Faunus race, and has thus insulted this team. Completely unacceptable.”

The boy sighed. “Weiss, though she may not like it, is our father’s daughter more than any of us were. She picked up his stance on these sorts of things, and isn’t flexible. No one in the Schnee family is flexible. She refuses to see the other side of the coin. I can talk to her, but it’s going to take more than a talk to change her mind.”

Ceur stepped forward. “That’s fine, Feuer. As long as you try. But in the meantime,” she glanced at the rest of her team: Radio with her crossed arms and angry eyes, Froshe with her downcast gaze, and Orchid, arms around his green haired teammate, murmuring comforting words. “CRHT will eat in the dining hall away from RWBY. Just until she calms down.” 

It didn’t calm down. RRIF could hear the two bicker with one another in their dorms as the began to settle down for the evening. They couldn’t hear the exact words, but the sounds of things did carry. Suddenly, Blake gave a loud shout, and the team’s room went quiet. RRIF looked at one another in concern, and as Flyte stuck her head out the door to go check on them, she yelped and jumped backwards as the black haired girl ran furiously down the hall, Ruby at the door to their dorm crying for her to come back.

She didn’t come back that evening.

Nor the next morning.

Or the following night.

Not even the next day.

For the entire weekend, Viridian watched as his sisters paced back and forth with worry, going into the city and back out to look for their teammate. Weiss always looked like she had something better to do when she joined the rest of her team on the hunts for the girl, eyes narrow and disapproving. At the end of the first day, Feuer pulled her aside, but after a minute she stormed off, refusing to look or listen to him. That evening, when the remaining girls of RWBY sat down at their usual table, Feuer and CRHT moved to the other end. Ruby looked hurt. Weiss turned up her nose and ignored them. Viridian asked Feuer what his sister said to make him upset as well, and Feuer refused to say. Ceur had some guesses. “She never did approve of Feuer’s more open outlook on things, nor his attitude towards their father. She may have begun to ignore it, but she still doesn't like how he rejects his places as heir.”

That night, Viridian sat next to his teammate and gave him a long hug, as if to say that he didn't care what his sister thought, because Feuer was perfect the way he was.

The next morning, Ruby came up to her brother and asked if he wanted to join them in searching for Blake. Always one to help, he agreed. The other pair of siblings sniffed at on another and walked off in different directions. Flyte and Indigo gave him a wry smile, waved him goodbye, and ran to catch up with Feuer. While they were out, Viridian was introduced to Ruby’s new… well he wasn’t sure if she was a friend, or just an attached acquaintance. She seemed nice enough, though all of the words she spoke seemed carefully measured. Penny, she introduced herself, as a student from Atlas in town to compete in the tournament. Ruby,Penny said, was her very first friend. Viridian’s heart ached. He knew what that was like, having gone for a long time, years, without friends. Penny didn’t seem all that concerned. She in a way, reminded him of Creu and Feuer, isolated from the society everyone else knew and was thrust into as an outsider. As they walked further into the city, they suddenly heard a large explosion, and the three whipped their heads around to stare at the plume of black smoke that rose above the city rooftops.

“Oh no,” Ruby muttered under her breath, immediately bursting into rose petals to jump onto the roofs, Viridian following close behind, green electricity wrapped around his body. Viridian wasn’t sure how, but as he ran and jumped across the building tops, Penny had joined them in their chase. Ruby finally slowed yelling to grab the attention of someone (why Ruby?? Viridian swore he had this conversation with her already this year.) and opened up Crescent Rose. Viridian looked down on the man who yelled back up at his sister. “Penny, stay back,” she said, ready to jump down into battle where Blake and a monkey faunus were, when the red haired man shot her, blasting her backwards. Viridian immediately rocketed down, followed closely by Penny, swords dancing around her and synchronized motion.With a solid kick, he was able to push back several men, the White Fang he guessed, away from the two and Penny sent her swords spinning across the men, their aura flashing to indicate it’s lowered power. She then stabbed an air ship that was trying to getaway and began to pull it. Easily. Wire thin strings, Viridian noticed as he pushed back another wave of men. After she tore apart two more ships with a green beam of generated energy, Viridian just missed grabbing onto the man in the white coat and black bowler hat as he baked into the remaining air ship with what troops he still had. 

As he flew away, Blake ran up to where Viridian stood, anger on her face. “No! He can’t get away!” but was stopped from doing anything else as Ruby materialized to hug her teammate tightly. 

Later, as he sat with the others on crates as the police flocked around the docks and Wiess and Yang showed up, Viridian wondered where Penny had disappeared. As he watched Weiss scolding Blake and then promised to try and understand her if she would open up to her team, he smiled. Things weren't perfect, they never were, but they were better. And that’s all that mattered right now. Back to Beacon then, where the rest of his class waited with bated breath to hear what happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am back! This, I admit, isn't the best chapter in the world, but I've been really busy.  
College applications are going in and I still have a portfolio to finish in time before the January due date is upon me.  
Anyways, I'll see what gets written this week, if I'm inspired, it'll be up on Thursday, if not, then next Monday.  
I hope you've been enjoying the story, leave any questions in the comments and I'll answer them as always, and I'll see you all next time for the start of volume 2!  
\- your local multi-fandom fangirl


	6. Reunion: Part 2

Sun’s tail flicked around happily as the boat carrying his team and the rest of his friends from Haven. He eagerly waved his hands once he caught sight of a familiar head of bright blue hair. “Hey! Neptune!” The boy in question gave a quick but tense smile that only relaxed once both of his feet were firmly on the dock and off the boat. “Hey dude! How was your trip? Where’s the rest of team SSSN?”

Neptue shrugged his shoulders. “You know how they are. They didn’t quite get the go ahead to come this early, but hey! Team OHRE was on this boat too. They should be down below deck. You can go grab them, I will wait here on the dock.” He gave a wide smile and then directed his gaze to some passing girls. “Ladies,” he said with a wink. The girls giggled as they continued past him. Sun rolled his eyes in fond familiarity before heading up the boat’s ramp. He eventually made it down to the room the team was staying in and popped his head in.

“Hey guys! What’s up!”

Hale gave him a kind smile, his powerful kangaroo tail sweeping the floor behind him. “Hey Sun! It’s nice to see you,” he replied, placing the last of his things into his bag and lifting it to rest across his shoulders. His teammates were similarly finishing packing and checking to see that they had not left anything behind on the ship. 

“It is comforting to see that your stay in the Kingdom of Vale has not dimmed the bright joy that you carry within you,” Oscuro spoke out, his words as always carefully crafted. On the wall, his shadow stretched until it peeled away from the vertical surface to rest its head on his form’s feathery black hair. Braccio’s large and somewhat menacing form grabbed onto both his bags and Dyr’s, the latter signing a quick thank you bashfully. His aura flashed and a second set of hands grew into existence at his side, each the same blue as his aura. With them, he grabbed onto the rest of the teams bags that were laying across the floor. Sun led them outside chatting all the while to where Neptue, who had traveled further up the dock to set foot on solid land, waited. They did have to stop briefly so Dyr could oversee the transfer of his animals into the school before the six of them started walking through Vate to get to Beacon. Sun always thought it was odd that a hunter in training refused to fight with a weapon himself, but he wasn’t about to start an argument with the boy’s large dogs. Those things had teeth. And they bite. Hard. Still not as terrifying as the flock of birds he’d collected. Those swarm. And Sun wasn’t even going to start on the bugs.

“So anyways,” Sun continued as they walked up to the school, “it’s really cool here. And there’s this girl, and she’s like, really cool. And she’s a faunus, but she’s playing that down, so it’s a secret. And her team is also really cool. Just like, be cool guys.”

“Dude,” Neptune cut in, stopping where he stood to give Sun what he considered his classic smile, like he was challenging his friend to say he wasn’t cool.

Hale stepped up to the doors of the cafeteria. “I think we will be fine meeting this team Sun.” Just then, an explosion sounded from within and something thudded against the door. The kangaroo faunus backed out of the way as a hoard of students poured out of the hall, screaming in terror. Inside, food was flying across the hall. Sun watched in glee as JNPR and STRC launched entire watermelons at RWBY and RRIF. From the defensive team, the two brawlers burst forth, one with entire turkeys on her hands as gauntlets, her brother with his semblance flickering to life about him. Behind the two, Flyte was touching everything in sight to create a floating battle field. 

Sun was too engrossed in the growing battle to hear the confused and shocked whispers OHRE muttered to one another. Sun did notice that Team CRHT was not participating in the fight, but were sitting at an undisturbed table camly drinking tea from porcelain cups and with a notebook out on the table top. He sidled over to them with a “Hey,” and sat down. Creu held out her hand and another cup formed in it, with which she filled with tea and wordlessly handed over to the monkey faunus. In the midst of the battle, Viridian landed a hit on Ashen who let off a stream of explosions in retaliation which Viridian was barely able to avoid. Froshe added a tally under his name in the notebook. OHRE and Neptune eventually joined them at the table and watched in fascination as Ruby burst into petals and generated so much wind that the direction of soda cans that Pyrrha had hurled towards her team changed direction, ending in the total defeat of team JNPR. Behind Sun’s gaze, Dyr and Orchid exchanged rapid hand motions, silently relaying their teams stories to one another. Just then, the doors at the end of the dinning hall burst open and a furious Professor Goodwitch burst through, waving her riding crop around, directing her semblance to put everything back in its place. Flyte sheepishly released everything from her control, as a few tables and benches were trying to make an escape from their returned places to the air, once the professor leveled a stare at her.

“Children,” she chided, “please, do not play with your food.”

Indigo bowed in apology as the RWBY and JNPR laughed at the resulting mess the battle had turned them into. Froshe held up the notebook and Ashen rushed over muttering furiously under his breath as he counted the tallys under his and his teams name, Flyte right behind him. During his stay, Sun noticed the two were extremely competitive against one another. Eventually the two gave a shout, one of joy the other of frustration and anger, and Flyte bounced in joy. “Another win for RRIF! Hey Tokoyami, Ojiro, Koda, Shoji. What’s up? Forte, you owe my team ice cream now, we’re the first to five wins.” The redhead groaned in defeat as his leader stewed in fury beside him. 

“So close,” he bemoaned. “We were only a point behind. How about first to ten wins instead?” She shook her head, a smug smirk plastered on her face. He let out another groan. 

Ryder shook his head, though he also had a smile on his face. “We never should have taken that bet. I mean, against those four? What were we thinking, going against the Dekusquad?”

Thunder snickered. “I wasn’t thinking at all.” RRIF, STRC, and CRHT all laughed. Sun didn’t quite get the joke, but that was fine. The latter team stood up and gestured towards the door, everyone following suit. RWBY and JNPR headed back to their dorms (out of the four teams that participated in the war, they came out the least clean) and Sun decided he would introduce his people to Blake, and the rest of her team of course, later. In the meantime, he could introduce them to the other three teams.

“So,” he began, “that was super cool! Also, I’d like to introduce some people! They just got in from Haven today. This is my teammate, Neptune,” Sun said, gesturing to the boy who smiled and winked.

“Ladies,” the four girls rolled their eyes.

“And this is my buddy team! Team OHRE!” the team waved. “They’re a fairly quiet group, you might have noticed.”

Creu stepped forward. “Sun, why don’t you show Neptune where your dorm is? We’d be happy to do the same to OHRE.” Sun smiled.

“Hey that’d be great! I’ll see you guys around!” he said, grabbing onto Neptune’s arm and draggin him towards the dormitories. Once he turned the corner, the four teams embraced one another in, filled with happiness. They were almost completely back together.

As Ruby waited for Yang to finish up in the bathroom (it took her sister ages to be satisfied with her hair care) she heard a shuffling outside the dorm room door. She unlocked the door and peered outside and --

“AHHHHHH!!! A puppy!!” She cried, startling Weiss who was brushing her long white hair and Blake who jumped to land on top of Ruby’s bunk as far away from the door as possible. Indeed, outside was a large wolf like dog who was now staring at Ruby with almost bored eyes. Ruby’s gaze then followed upwards where a tall student stood behind the dog. The student gave a small and shy wave of his hand, then pointed to the dog, then to himself. “Oh! Is this your dog?” she asked, to which he nodded. A second boy walked behind him, with a tail sweeping behind his legs. 

“Dyr is just letting him familiarize himself with the dorms since it’s a new environment.” The boy smiled. “I’m Hale, we’re part of Team OHRE, from Haven. We’ll be competing in the Vytal festival.” He held out a hand, “We’re friends with Sun. He’s told us about you guys. Ruby, right? And team RWBY?” Ruby nodded and excitedly shook his hand. 

At that, Weiss stuck her head out of the dorm to see the competition. Ruby watched with bated breath as her teammate took in the kangaroo tail and the final members of the boy’s team that were talking to Viridian and Radio down the hall by an open door, one of whom had black feathers for hair. “It's nice to meet you.” she eventually said and Ruby sighed in relief. An improvement. She supposed points of view wouldn't change that easily, but at least Wiess had been trying over the break. The remaining team members walked on over and nodded their heads in greeting. They had a very sharp contrast to Hale and Dyr, Ruby noticed. More of the dark and dangerous type of person. But still, if her brother liked them they couldn't be so bad. She smiled in return. 

“Dyr, Hale, the dorms for the visiting students are in another building. Viridian will direct us to them,” the feather haired boy said. The two nodded, and Dyr knelt to gather up the dog at his feet. The two waved goodbye and the team turned to follow Viridian down the hall.

“You know,” Wiess started, breaking the silence that settled in their room. “Your brother has this uncanny ability to make friends. He immediately made friends with his team, our team, and three now four other teams, one of which just arrived today.” Yang just then made her exit from the bathroom, picking up the conversation.

“Yeah, he’s been really good at making people feel safe and comfortable, like he knows how to approach them.” She frowned a bit. “But he did make very fast friends with STRC and CRHT, almost unusually fast, but whatever,” she shrugged. “That’s just Vir for you.” Ruby nodded in agreement. Her brother was a very nice person, and was very good with people. She always figured that it was one of those undeniable laws of Remnant, like Viridian Rose must always be a friend's hopeful person. Just like Yang was a hair obsessed sister. “Hey!”

Oh. Did she say that out loud?

The next morning, OHRE joined their table for breakfast and almost immediately were sucked into a conversation with Viridian and his friends. Flyte then turned towards Yang with a smile and told her the best news of the week. “There’s supposed to be a dance planned out for the welcoming of the visiting students. Sounds fun right!” Yang beamed at her. Dances were always great! Everyone wore nice dresses, looked hot in everything, and she had an excuse to lavish even more care on her golden locks. 

“Planning on going with anyone?” she asked Flyte. 

The girl shrugged. “I don’t know yet. I do have a few bets going for who’s going to ask who though.”

Indigo turned to face the two. “Flyte! I already told you that it is irresponsible and unbefitting of Hunters in training to invest your money in betting! I strongly suggest that you remove your lien from whatever bet you have entered yourself in!” he lectured, waving his arms around. Creu leaned over and whispered into his ears, and he lowered his head in thought. “Actually, Creu has told me what you bet on, and the odds of said person asking out the other are fairly high. I will give permission,but still strongly discourage doing so in the future.”

Yang looked at Flyte in amusement. “Who are you betting on?”The girl only winked in response.

“I’ll let you know in a week, that’s when my bet expires. How about you? Anyone you want to ask out?”

Yang thought for a moment, before allowing her eyes to drift over the table, eventually landing on a dark haired girl, eyes darker and more exhausted than normal. “Maybe.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back, and probably will be able to squeeze in one more chapter before I go on winter break. I'll be pretty busy studying for finals, but I'll see what I can get done!  
I hope you all are having a nice panic month, and if you really should be studying, then STUDY, this will be here after the finals!  
Also: I'm having some trouble thinking up names for Aoyama, Sato, and Hagakure. If you have ideas, then please leave them in the comments!  
I'll see you all next time!


	7. Suspicion

“Hey Viridian, question.” Viridian nodded, keeping his eyes on the paper he was finishing for Professor Oobleck’s class, quietly muttering under his breath as he scribbled down word after word. “Do you know why your sisters, the rest of their team, Sun and Neptune just walked off of campus like they were preparing for battle?” Hale finished.

Viridan paused, his train of thought suddenly derailed. “What?”

Hale immediately noticed the darker tone of his voice. “Sorry, but Ruby just walked by our dorm dragging Wiess behind her excitedly chattering about a super secret mission.”

The green haired hunter banged his head against the table, and after a while, spoke, voice filled with decision. “You know what? I’m tired of going after my sisters and their irresponsibility. I’m going to finish my homework, go to sleep, and in the morning if they’re still alive, I’ll chew them out then.”

That night, Viridan firmly kept his head buried in his pillow, and the only explanation he would give his team was that he was so tired of sisters running around willy nilly with no regards to the consequences of things and that this was punishment for everything he had ever previously done in his life. Feuer patted him in comfort while Flyte and Indigo laughed at the two. 

“Oh hush Indigo. You gave me a heart attack when you decided to do the exact same thing,” he eventually snapped. Indigo immediately went quiet and Flyte clutched her stomach as she burst into renewed peals of laughter, gradually floating towards the ceiling as she trembled with mirth.

“Finally! Payback is sweet!” Flyte cackled. “This is for literally breaking your bones every time something happened and leaving the rest of us worried.” A groan emanated from the pillow. “I’ll be right back, I’ve got to tell all the girls that payback is finally here,” and with that, she dropped back down to the floor was out the door and in the hall. 

“She does have a point,” Indigo spoke out, breaking the silence that fell into the room once the lone female of the team ran out.

“Shut up.”

The next day, team RWBY were groggily eating their breakfast, tired from the previous night's excitement when a shadow fell upon two members of the team. “So,” Viridian started. “Where were you last night that you only came back to the dorms at three in the morning?” Ruby shrunk in her seat, while Yang whirled around, plastering a smile on her face.

“Hey little bro! So glad you could join us for breakfast!” Viridian cocked an unimpressed eyebrow, and Ruby quickly gave in. She threw her arms around her brother and began speaking in a very fast voice. 

“Soeverythingistotallynotmyfault,butweneededtoprovethesomethingsomethingWhiteFangandtowersomethinggiantrobotarmorsomethingTorchiwocksoemthingsomethinggirlwithanumbrellaanditwashorriblebutYangwasreallycooland--”

“Ruby,” he interrupted. “I understood just about none of that.”

A burst of laughter erupted behind him and he turned to look at his teammates, and a blushing Dyr. Orchid sported splitting (and slightly unsettling, Ruby thought) grin on his face. “Dyr siad: ‘now he knows how we felt’, which to be fair, is very true.” Viridian shot an annoyed look as they turned back to their own breakfast before looking back to his sisters. 

“Look Ruby, I just want you to be safe. You’ve decided to involve yourself in matters that are out of your control. You have no obligation to go out in the middle of the night and worry yourself with these things.” Blake cast a dark look at the table. “Please, just leave these matters in the hands of the police. I know you, you want to make sure everyone is happy, but you’re still young, you’re only 15. If you really want to do something, learn. Train to be a proper huntress, and if you really can’t wait, see if you can do something during the training week.” Ruby nodded, hugged her brother, and turned back to her food. Viridian whirled to face Yang. “And you. Really, I thought you’ve learned. You are unprepared to go up against a villain who is even giving the professionals trouble. Don’t drag our younger sister into something she can't fight against again.” And with that he turned and joined his own team. Wiess peeked a look to the two sisters. For once, she noticed, Yang was not wearing her trademark cocky grin and Ruby was silent in thought. 

She took a breath. “Well, at least we are all alright. And our team moves looked very effective, so that’s good.” Ruby perked up.

“Yah! We worked really hard on those moves, and they worked together very well! I think we should continue working on our skills and we’ll be the top team of the year in no time!” she said, shooting her fist up into the air with a wide and bright smile on her face. There was the Ruby she had begun to be fond of. She really was a good friend, the heiress thought. She looked back at the table where RIFF and the other teams were sitting and caught her brother’s eye. He gave her a proud and reassuring smile and then looked back at Viridian sitting next to him who was chatting excitedly.

After breakfast, the group moved on to their classes, eventually leading to where they currently were, watching Pyrrha absolutely destroy team CRDL. It was barely even a fight. Pyrrha’s skills and technique, the strategy she used led to the four boys to end up sprawled on the floor, groaning as they nursed their injuries. Goodwitch made some notes on her tablet, then waved her crop, gesturing for the boys to return to their seats. Viridian frantically noted a few things down on his notebook while a few of his friends discussed the fight.

“I think Aizawa-sensei would like her,'' one of them whispered. “She’s very skilled and serious about the fight,” they continued, as a few voices around them whispered their own agreement.

“We still have time for another fight. Do we have any volunteers?” The class pointedly avoided her eyes, at least the ones that hadn’t fought recently. She looked around. “Miss Belladonna,” Blake startled and looked down to where the professor stood. “You’ve been rather subdued the past week or so. Why don’t you come down?” 

Before Blake could say anything, another voice spoke up. “I’ll do it,” a boy with silver hair said, raising his hand into the air. 

Goodwitch adjusted her glasses. “Mercury, is it?” He nodded. “Good. Let’s find you a suitable partner--”

“Actually,” he interrupted, “I wanted to fight her,” he stated pointing a finger at the redhead standing next to the professor. 

“Me?” Pyrrha asked, surprised. Viridian narrowed his eyes. 

“I’m sorry,” the professor started. “Miss Nikos has just finished a fight, I’ll find you another partner.”

Pyrrha shook her head. “No! It’s alright, I’d be happy to oblige,” she finished, smiling at her opponent. Mercury smirked and made his way down to the floor. Viridian looked closed. The boy didn’t look familiar, he was certain he didn’t go to Beacon, by up a row, Ruby grinned excitedly. 

“Hey, Ruby,” he said, gaining her attention. “Do you know who that is?” His sister nodded enthusiastically. Behind her, a girl with light green hair listened with interest.

“Sure thing! He’s Mercury, he and his teammates, like Emerald here, are here for the Vital Festival from Haven Academy! I met them a while ago, and even directed them to their dorms, like you did for OHRE!” Viridian slowly nodded, and turned back around to where the fight was starting. The two opponents looked at one another for a moment, then Mercury charged, aiming a kick at Pyrrha, who blocked it with her shield and then slashed at his legs, causing him to lose balance. He flipped out of range, and seemed to study her for a moment. Pyrrha made the next move, eventually pushing him back even further towards the edge of the arena with a series of attacks. Mercury once again stopped to study her. Viridian also took the time to study him. Mercury fought with his legs, relying on them heavily, but there was more to the fight. Mercury looked like he was looking for something, testing the capabilities of his opponent. Behind him, Viridian heard Ruby compliment the boy to another. Down below, the boy charged, and the two exchanged a series of blows, leading Mercury to knock Pyrrha’s spear out of her hands. He looked at the weapon in the ground then swung around for a roundhouse kick. It missed, just passing her face, and he paused, contemplating. Viridian narrowed his eyes even further. Pyrrha had to have used her semblance to manipulate the kick, but the look on Mercury’s face didn’t sit well with him. Pyrrha pushed him back one final time, and as she charged, he held up his arms.

“I forfeit,” he said, shocking the class and Pyrrha, who dug her feet into the ground to stop her momentum. 

“You’re not even going to try?” she questioned.

He shook his head. “You’re world renowned, I’m obviously out of my league.”

Viridian turned to look at his teammates, tuning out Goodwitch’s declaration of the match’s results. He leaned in to whisper into Feuer’s ear, “We need to talk.” Feuer nodded, and gently nudged Flyte beside him to pass on the message. Something wasn’t right, and Viridian believed it had to do with the boy on the floor smirking up at his teammate in the class seats. 

“Something is up with Mercury and Emerald,” Viridian started as he paced the floor of RIFF’s dorm. Ashen grunted as he looked around the crowded room. They had somehow managed to squeeze all four teams into the dorm, and it left for a very cramped situation. At least he had managed to snag a seat at the edge of a bunk, where Shitty Hair leaned up against him to make room for the rest of his team. “He looked like he decided to take that fight purely to know about Pyrrha and her fighting style. He spent too much time studying her than any normal match. Of course, you should study your opponent, to know how to counteract them and gain an upper hand, but it seemed like he was testing something.” 

Across from Ashen, Ponytail nodded in agreement. “The fight was a bit odd. He most certainly wasn’t putting all of his effort into it.” next to her, Weird Ears bent her head in thought. She turned to look at the other stupid Purple Hair who spoke up.

“I think we should keep our eyes out for them. We don’t have any concrete evidence, but I think this class has had enough run ins with villains to know when something is up.”

The teams nodded solemnly. Beneath where he was sitting on the lower bunk, Round Face let out a sigh. “I wish sensei were here. He’d know what to do.”

In a camp far across Remnant, a man with dark black hair sneezed. 

“You better not be coming down with something,” a woman dressed in red and black snapped, hand resting on her sword blades, red eyes flashing dangerously. He only shook his head, eyes narrowing, thoughts swirling in the back of his mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Thanks for being so patient with me! I've finally sent off everything I need to for college applications, and I'm finally free of a lot of work!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the chapter and are ready for the dance next chapter! I'll see you soon!  
-your local multi-fandom fangirl


	8. Break

The next morning at breakfast, Blake was quiet. Feuer supposed she was usually quiet, but this time she was unusually quiet. She seemed angry, black circles staining the rims of her eyes, and the other girls looked like they wanted to talk to her, or had tried to talk to her but had failed to do so. Weiss peeked up from where she was staring at her food to meet her twins eyes. She glanced to the hallway and after breakfast was finished (and Blake was gone long before that happened), the two stepped out together and made their way to a stone bench. 

To Feuer’s surprise, it was Wiess who started the conversation. “Am I doing the right thing?”

“I’m going to need some context.”

Wiess sighed. “We’ve been doing ... some personal investigations into ... some things.” Feuer raised an eyebrow. That wasn’t suspicious. “And Blake has completely lost herself in it. We’re worried for her, I’m worried for her, and she refuses to even take a break. We tried to insist that she come to the dance,” she broke off here. “You are going to the dance right? I’ve put a lot of effort into it.” He nodded in conformation. She gave a small but sly smile. “With a date?” He thought of emerald eyes and the light blush on Viridian’s face when he had asked him to accompany him to the dance. 

“Yes.” Her smile grew, then dropped, her eyes following to stare at the white skirt she rested her hands on. 

“Anyways, Blake. She keeps pushing us away, and I’ve been trying! I’ve been trying to be better, and I have been, haven’t I? Been better?” she stopped and started playing with the folds of the fabric in her hands. “I, I just see how happy you and your team are, how you seem so open to one another, and, why can’t she be like that with us? It’s not like you’ve known your teammates any longer than I have!”

Feuer paused. Well, he technically did. But she really shouldn’t know that. The class had decided that spreading the knowledge of other worlds in Remnant probably wasn’t the best idea. He slowly wrapped an arm around his sister, (and how novel that was, to be able to do that without fear of a father or the rejection of another) and she leaned into his side. “I think these things take time. People are different. Not all of us get along perfectly and are probably more willing to open to others. Do you see Ashen knocking at my door when he has problems?” Weiss gave a short burst of laughter. “He’d probably, of all of us, go to Forte first. Maybe you just need someone else to talk to her, just one on one, or something,” 

Weiss nodded and leaned back away. “Okay. Alright.” She took a deep breath in and out, then stood up, straightening. “Alright. I’m going back to set up the dance with Yang. And figure out how to help Blake. But I’m going to work on the dance first.” She looked back at Feuer, a smile on her face. “Thanks, Feuer.”

He smiled back. “You’re welcome. And Wiess?” she paused, stopping herself from taking a step down the hall. “For the record, I’m proud of how far you’ve come.”

“Question, Froshe,” Yang asked, shoving the door to CRHT’s room open. Flyte yelped from where she was lying across the girl in question’s legs. Radio and Creu turned to look at the intruder from where they were curled up on the opposite bed, one with curious eyes, the other with an annoyed look on her face. 

The green haired girl let out a short, “kero,” in both shock and an answer. 

“Do laser pointers work on cat fanus as well as they do on cats?”

Finally, Sunday at last. The school was buzzing in laughter, the girls were running around finalizing dresses and makeup, the boys shoved aside in their dorms to give the girls space. Or told to make themselves useful. “Indigo, can you finish zipping up my dress?” Flyte asked, holding her short hair up so the top portion of her zipper was exposed to the boy. 

“I am honored that you would ask me to help you in such a sign of trust. Do you need any more assistance?” he questioned, pulling the dress shut. She turned to give him a smile and spun around, light on her feet.

“Well? What do you guys think?” she asked, giving a final turn to show off the pink dress she’d chosen. It was embroidered with small flowers and Viridian thought it looked very pretty on her, and he told her so. She smiled even brighter. “You guys look nice too!” Viridian gave her a shy smile. He was dressed in a dark green, and Feuer in whites and blues. Indigo had opted to go for a more traditional ensemble and was wearing a sharp looking black suit and tie. She checked her scroll and gave a small ‘eep’ when she saw the time. “Okay, I’m going to meet Froshe now. You sure I look okay?”

Viridian laughed. “Flyte, you look great. Go have fun, we’ll be down in a moment,” she returned his reassuring smile and headed out the room and down the hall. Orchid poked his head in as she left. He was dressed in a simple shirt and slacks, obviously not really caring about his appearance. He’d probably been forced into at least wearing the bare minimum for a formal dance by the girls on his team. 

“Hey Indigo. You ready to join Dyr, Braccio and Oscuro in the Forever Alone corner with me tonight?”

Indigo stepped forward to follow. “If we are together, how can we be alone? This corner makes no sense!” 

And then Viridian was left alone in the room with Feuer. He fiddled nervously with the cuff of his jacket sleeve before looking up at his date for the night. “Are you ready to head out?” he asked, luckily able to keep a tremer out of his voice.

Feuer offered the crook of his arm to him. “Ready as I’ll ever be,” and Viridian felt his face heat up as the two linked arms and headed out into the cool night air.

Yang really should have seen this coming. She was a good reader of people, and had very fine social skills, but her younger brother?? With Weiss’ brother?? “Oh wow, you guys ... look ... so great,” she said as she stood at the podium at the entrance, her voice tapering with every second she processed the couple in front of her. The cooler, taller, (and definitely more handsome) boy simply nodded his thanks with a small smile and her brother (her baby brother!!) had red tinted cheeks and a nervous and kinda dopey smile on his own face. The two moved along towards the dance floor, and after the final guests of the evening arrived, she left her post and began hunting down her sister. She found the tiny red clad girl nursing two cups of punch by the bowl along the edge of the dance.

“So, Ruby!” she started. Her sister hmmed noncommittally in a semblance of recognition that she was being talked too. “You know how Vir and I always embarrassed you with how we were going to give whoever you started dating the biggest and most threatening shovel talk in existence?” Ruby gave another noise of disinterest as she lifted one of the cups to drink from it. “Change of plans, we’re giving it to Feuer.” 

Ruby sipped from the cup, stopped, then sputtered as the words finally reached her brain. She swiped her arm across her mouth, set both drinks down and whirled to face Yang. “Feuer and Vir are dating??” Yang nodded in solemn agreement. “Feuer, the dubbed Ice Queen’s twin brother and our brother?” Ruby paused to think about how close the two were with one another and the smiles she’d seen but dismissed they shared. “Huh,” was all she said before taking another sip of punch. And immediately set the cup back down, eyes bulging out. “Is Jaune wearing a dress?”

Yang whirled her head around in shock. Sure enough, walking towards the center of the dance floor where Pyrrha stood in a red cocktail dress, was Jaune wearing one of Nora’s spare dresses. The crowd around him was laughing but he ignored them, seeming to only have eyes for his teammate, who joined them in laughter, face brighter with happiness than it had been all evening. The two watched as he offered her a hand and the two began to waltz across the floor, a shining smile still plastered on Pyrrha’s face and a similar, softer smile stretched across Jaune’s. Yang barely noticed the other girls that joined them at the punch table to watch the two until Flyte gave a happy clap, hands clasped together in joy by her face.

Creu had a beatific smile on her own face as she said, “Now all we need is for the two to actually get together.” The waltz came to a stop as the song changed to a more upbeat pop song started to play. Flyte tugged on Froshe’s arm, leading her to a corner of the dance floor where their teams were dancing, and Radio gave the two sisters a smile of her own as she and Creu joined them. 

Yang turned to her sister. “I’m going to head out and dance, you coming?”

Ruby shook her head. “I think I’m good. I’m just happy seeing everyone else enjoying themselves,” she replied, turning her head to look at Blake and Sun, who was showing the cat fanus some strange looking dance moves and to Weiss and Neptune who were talking quietly amongst themselves. Yang gave her a beaming look of pride, turned towards the dance floor, and lost herself in the crowd and beat.

Pyrrha was having the time of her life. She wasn’t really planning on attending the dance, and wasn’t going to if she hadn’t had a dress and if Creu and the other girls had convinced her otherwise. She was really happy to have such kind friends like them around her. She never really had friends who were willing to look at her and not see everything she’d become. But Creu herself came from a wealthy family and was probably used to the same feelings. And Jaune, well, he was always so nice to be around. Someone who didn’t know her, and would only ever see her for herself. And the hours they spent training together in the evenings made him even better in his eyes. He knew who she was, how much weight her name carried at their age, and still refused to look past her own personality. She smiled at Jaune as their eyes met for a moment as they danced to the music. She spied Feuer over her partner's shoulder as he spun Viridian around, both of them laughing and smiling. She returned her attention back to her own teammate. “I never knew you were such a good dancer, Jaune!” she said in surprise.

“Yeah, well, you learn a few things when you grow up with as many sisters as I do,” he said sheepishly. 

“Well,” she started, “remind me to thank them for teaching you one of these days.”

Jaune looked at her in surprise, and his face brightened. “Yeah! Absolutely!” Around them, people began to clap as the song finished and a new one started. Jaune suddenly pitched forward, arms flailing as he struggled to regain his balance. Nora had jumped on him in joy, probably hyped up on sugar, and Ren had a grimace on his face, probably wishing he could have stopped her from doing so. Janue did manage to catch himself and straighten, Nora still wrapped around his back like a koala. “Maybe we should head back to our dorms soon,” he said. “I think Nora is going to crash soon.” Pyrrha let out another laugh. Always looking out for others. She hopes that one day, she’ll be able to return the favor. 

“Ruby, are you going to explain to me why the General of Atlas was accompanying you home last night? And not from the dance, but from the complete opposite direction?” Ruby dropped her head into her hands with a groan, not really having the energy to deal with her brother. Things were happening, and she really wanted to get to the bottom of it. Maybe today RWBY could sign up for something so they could look for the hideout. “Also, why did Dyr tell me that dad sent Zwei over in a mail package?”

“You know about that?” she asked, snapping her head up to look at her brother’s eyes. He lifted an eyebrow. “Oh, right, Dyr. Animals. Duh.” Shoot. That probably means he knows that Zwei was also stowed the pack she was currently wearing.

Viridian shook his head. “You know what? I’ve decided I don’t want to know.. But RIFF is going to come with you wherever your team decides to go today.” Ruby put her head back in her hands with a resigned sigh. She brought this on herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back with another chapter! Hurrah! And things are starting to pick up! 
> 
> Both in the story and in my life (I've been accepted into several colleges!)'
> 
> I'll be back sometime next week, and until next time!  
Edit: I’m not going to be back this week, why the heck does school decide to make everything due at once??  
Edit edit: guys, I’m really sorry I haven’t gotten back yet. I’ve got the next chapter in the works, but with everything that’s been going on, things have been kind of hectic. I’m working on a company logo and I still have a research paper to finish, so it may be a while. I have not forgotten, and I shall return! :) thank you all!! I love you guys!!!
> 
> -your local multi fandom fangirl


	9. Romanticized

Flyte landed gently on the ground next to her and her accompanying team. She, for one, was very glad for her experience in the field. Team RWBY was very skilled, but some of their landings made her legs ache with the impact just by looking. As she listened to Professor Oobleck ramble about the goal of the mission, she noticed RWBY exchanging glances with one another. She did take note of their apprehension on the flight over, probably put off by their teacher’s rambling and overzealous tendencies. She rather liked his classes, and he reminded her, and many of the others of Present Mic’s enthusiasm. She popped her mind back into attention when Oobleck suddenly cut off on his speech.

“Ruby! I thought I told you to leave all of your bags back at school.” 

“But, you hadn’t told us to listen to you yet. So I didn’t.” Ruby answered nervously. Beside her, Viridian brought his hand up to his face. 

“She’s not wrong,” Oobleck admitted under his breath. “Very well,” he accepted. “Young lady, leave your bag here we shall pick it up upon our return.” Ruby hunched over and held up a small finger to protest. “What could you possibly have in that bag to make it so important to bring it along wi--” Professor Oobleck cut off in his scolding. Flyte looked over at Viridian’s sister, and immediately was clutched in laughter’s grasp. She had a dog in her bag? That was amazing!

“We’re here to investigate an abandoned urban jungle teeming with death and hostility, and you brought a dog?” The professor questioned. On her left, Indigo looked ready to start scolding the girl and join in with Professor Oobleck when suddenly, the dog was in the pro huntsman’s arms, “Genius!” he exclaimed and he was suddenly rambling at all the potential uses for the dog and how great it was that he was here. Team RWBY looked at their leader, who gave them a smug smile.

“I’m a genius!” Oh, this was too good, Flyte thought. She did admit she had some doubts when Viridian told them that they would be following his sisters' team on the mission, but so far, the trip was looking up. Naturally, that was when Professor Oobleck pointed out the lone beowulf behind them. She and her team crouched into readied fighting positions, listening as the doctor explained that they would follow the grimm back to its pack, which theoretically would lead them to the group they were looking for. And then the pack showed up and began running towards the two teams and huntsman in long and quick loping strides. She shared a look with her team, and just as the professor gave them permission to fight, they were off. She could almost hear Mic-sensei yelling at the entrance exam, the reminder that there was no countdown in a true fight echoing in her mind. In an instant she had made herself weightless and was blasting herself forward with the help of her propulsion boots, knives out and poised to strike. As she cut into the black body of one of the grimm, she saw at the corner of her vision Viridian jumping around the ruins to strike the beings, a white beowolf behind him clawing at the creatures with streaks of ice. A grimm slashed at her and she leaped backwards into the prepared Indigo, who grabbed her hand and swung her around to gain momentum before the two rushed at the last of the grimm, which faded into black dust. She turned to beam at her teammates, cheeks pink from the effort. Viridian returned her smile with a smile like the sun, bright and warm, while Indigo and Feuer gave her smaller but no less genuine ones. Oobleck walked up to them and team RWBY rejoined them from where they had scattered in the fight. 

“Lovely job team RIFF! An excellent display of teamwork and quick reaction times! Now, let’s be off, there is much to do here!”

Professor Oobleck observed the two teams. It was clear that RWBY was improving at a rapid pace, and worked much better together then they would have been able to at the beginning of the school year. However, when he observed their fights, he could see that it was almost always every woman for herself. There was little interaction between each member. Instead, each of the girls would take their own part of the fight for themselves. RIFF, on the other hand, worked like matching gears in harmony and their performance over their time at Beacon had only improved. Sometimes he wondered if they knew each other beforehand, but they had come from all across Remnant, so it was unlikely, though not impossible. In them he saw motivated hunters and huntresses, and had no doubt that they were able to go far in the world. Their semblances were powerful, but there was skill behind just the semblance. Unlike Miss Xiao Long, who relied on her power a little too much and Miss Rose who lacked fighting styles beyond that with her scythe, these children could fight, with their weapons, with their semblances, and without either. He resolved his jumbled mind to agree on his goal for the trip. He may be a hunter, but he would always be a teacher, and this trip, he decided, he would make the teams really think about the path they were set on. Make them think of their motivations, and why they decided to become hunters and huntresses. 

He was quickly presented with opportunities to talk to them. And what fascinating things he learned. He made little comment on the answers they gave, choosing to let them think and find the answers himself. As he walked away from the most recent bout of fighting, he thought through what the girls had revealed to him. Yang had a fire of passion for the act of fighting, for adventure, but he wondered how long that flame would stay lit. Wiess had a sense of honor, the weight of her family name stretched across her shoulder, saddling her with a burden. And Blake carried herself with the goal of justice and equality, but she seemed lost in the forest, unsure of what path would lead her to her goal. 

And with that, he approached the last group. “Team RIFF.” their heads snapped to attention, turning away from the fading remains of a few grimm that had approached them. “Your group seems fairly motivated to become proper hunters and a huntress. Why did you decide to pick this path over every other one?” The team looked at each other. 

Viridian was the first to speak. “I think we all know that there is wrong in the world, and we want to be able to fix it. To be there for people and reassure them that we are here for them.” Behind him, the team shared fond smiles with one another. 

“And perhaps you are looking for something more?” he questioned further. Their leader made a noncommittal noise.

“There are many out in the world who are lost. Shouldn’t we be able to secure them in the knowledge that they can be found and they can find a way to a home of their own?” Oobleck nodded, and took a sip from his canister, turning to Ruby Rose who was currently playing with her dog, a bit of meat stuck at the tip of her weapon.

“Are we moving on?” the girl asked, stuffing the weapon into its holder on her back, and swiftly diverting her attention to him.

She was so full of innocence, yet chose this career. He wondered how things might have been different had she not had most of team STRQ as such strong figures in her life growing up. “No, we’re setting up for the night here. Team RWBY, set up camp, and team RIFF, gather supplies for the night. Ruby and I will be scouting the perimeter.” And with that, he turned and walked briskly away to where he had noticed the goliath grimm earlier, the teams breaking off to do their tasks, one in quiet conversation, the other in dead and thoughtful silence.

Indigo lay quietly on his small mat, his teammates piled on his larger body for warmth. It was rather chivalrous of them to give their partnered team the fire, he thought, seeing as he was much closer to his teammates then they were with theirs. Flyte shifted in her sleep, her grip on his arm tightening slightly. He gave a small smile, but didn’t turn to look at his friend, choosing instead to remain still when he heard Viridian’s older sister quietly ask her partner if she was awake.

“Why do you think the doc asked us why we wanted to be huntresses?” she asked once she received confirmation that her teammate was in fact awake. “Like what was he trying to say?”

He heard fabric rustling against a mat as the blonde shifted positions, probably turning to face her partner as she responded, “Maybe he was just curious.”

“Really? You think?” 

“No.”

“Weiss, you awake?”

Feuer’s sister snapped in a quiet voice. “Of course I’m awake, you two are talking. And,” she hesitated, a small pause, a silence filling the area, the fire crackling seemingly diminished in the quiet. “When I said I wanted to uphold the family name, there was more to that. I’m fully aware of what my father has done since taking control of the Schnee Dust Company. Ever since, it’s operated in a moral grey area.” Indigo recalled what Feuer had said on the subject. How his father here had married into the company and taken over, how Feuer broke away from what his father was trying to turn him and his twin into when he met Creu. Indigo clenched his fist in anger. It was completely unfair for Feuer, for Shoto, to have to live through this kind of life, twice. He turned his head slightly and peeked his eyes open to glance at the boy in question. Feuer’s head was pillowed on Viridian’s chest, who in turn was lying up against Indigo’s own side. He turned his attention back to Weiss’s speech. “Our father was not the start of our name, and I refuse to let him be the end of it.”

Blake’s more somber voice cut in afterwards. “I always thought I was fighting for what was right.” Huh. “I had a partner, more of a mentor really, named Adam. He assured me that what we were doing was right, that it would make the world a better place. But his vision of a perfect future was not perfect for everyone. I joined Beacon because hunters and huntresses were always regarded as noble warriors, always fighting for good. I never really thought past that. After I leave, I,” she paused, voice swimming with questions unanswered, “How can I fix so many years of hate?” Yang murmured quiet reassurances, but Blake brushed them off. “But I am! I ran away from you when you found out I was a fanus, I ran when I found out my partner had turned into a monster, and even my semblance allows me to run away, to leave behind an empty shadow of myself to take a hit while I run away.”

The crackling of the fire filled the night as the faunus stopped talking. After a moment, Yang began to talk. “At least you two have a driving motivation. I’ve only ever gone with the flow of things.That’s just the kind of person I am. But for how long can I continue to do that for? I want to be a huntress, but not because I want to be a hero. But because I want the adventure, the uncertainty of tomorrow, and for that to be a good thing. I’m not like Ruby or Viridian. Viridian decided early on that he wanted to protect people, and he always told Ruby made up stories of heroes, and she began to dream of becoming a huntress, of helping others and saving the day, and never asking for anything in return. Even before dad and Vir started training her to fight, she knew that's what she wanted to do. That’s why she’s trained so hard to get to where she is today.”

“Well, she is younger than all of us. And we are all still kids,” Weiss pointed out.

Yang scoffed, and Indigo felt inclined to agree with her answer. “No we’re not. We’re in the middle of a war zone armed to the teeth.” 

Weiss sighed. “Well, I think we all had this romanticized vision of becoming a huntress in our minds, but that’s not what it’s like.” Indigo recalled what it was like when he first realized that being a hero wasn’t the perfect job it seemed to be. He remembered running into his brother’s hospital room, his vision of an infallible hero shattered. “At the end of the day, being a huntress is a job, and we have a duty to protect the people. Whatever we want comes second to that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I live!! Thank you for being so patient with me, I hope everyone is staying safe and indoors. Please stay safe guys, we are living in history, let’s not add to the numbers. 
> 
> Also, yes, Viridian was absolutely telling Ruby All Might and other hero stories. Probably mostly All Might, with a few of his own adventures sprinkled in for the heck of it.  
  
Next time: we wrap up volume two and head into the tournament arc I mean, volume three!!
> 
> Stay healthy and happy!  
-your local multi fandom fangirl


	10. Splitting

“Where’s Ruby?” Viridian wakes to the panicked questions of his older sister. His eyes snap open and sits up, Feuer’s head lifting from where it had fallen on his chest when they went to sleep. His sister’s sleeping mat was empty, and Zwei was running in circles, barking up a storm. He wakes the rest of his team and they briskly follow Zwei out of the ruins they slept in and towards a sinkhole in the abandoned street. “Oh no! Ruby’s scythe!” Yang quickly ran over to where the red weapon lay on the street, picking it up gingerly.

Weiss leaned over the sinkhole, peeing into its depths. “Do you think she fell?” she asked the doctor as he jogged up to join the heiress at the edge. 

“Oh my,” Oobleck states under his breath, before whirling around to face the Viridian, his team and the rest of his sister’s team. “Of course! Of course, of course!” he exclaimed. He immediately began to pace back and forth, thoughts tumbling out over one another, ignoring the interjections of Blake and Yang. “How could I be so stupid! Mountain Glen! An expansion of Vale that was inevitably destroyed by the creatures of grimm. Previously home to thousands of people, working people, people commuting into the main city, who developed a subway system to the inner city! Grimm attacks increase, putting the population in danger and in search of shelter they evacuate into the subway tunnels and what do they find!? The SouthEast quadrant of Vale is known for wild forests and deep caves!” Viridian watches Oobleck as he shakes his sister. “My dear,” the doctor exclaims, “we are not just looking for an underground crime network, we are looking for an underground crime network!”

“They’ve been working in caves?” Blake asked, confused by the stream of information that was just dumped on her.

Viridian’s mind whirls all the information he just heard, all the information he’s learned and absorbed since a young age trying to understand the world he’d been born into. “No, wait.” He said as things finally clicked into place. “Mountain Glen was the first serious expansion of Vale that only worked for a short period of time because of its unique transportation system, but it’s not easily protected as it lacks the natural defenses against grimm attacks that Vale itself has. When they evacuated, they created a sort of underground village in the caverns used for the subway systems, but those were built out of natural caves, and an explosion caused the wall separating the subway system and another cave to collapse, ushering in an attack from subterranean grimm. Vale sealed off the tunnels creating--”

“The world’s largest tomb, yes,” the doctor finished. “If Ruby is really down there, we must find out.” And with that, he pulled out his canister, transforming it into what looked like a flamethrower, then turning to face the sinkhole, Oobleck jumped in. Viridian exchanged a look with his team and followed suit. Down in the dark cavern, he grabbed the arms of his teammates as his sister ran ahead, gauntlets cocked and ready to murder ayone who touched her baby sister. 

“Guys, something doesn’t make sense. They have no reason to be down here in the system when it’s completely sealed off. There has to be more to what they are planning.” Indigo nodded.

“I agree. It’s completely illogical to trap themselves down here, and, considering the presumed mastermind of this whole exhibition is the criminal Torchwick, someone who has continuously evaded the hands of the authorities, then he certainly has something planned.” Up ahead, gunshots rang out and the team hurried to catch up with the action. To Viridian’s relief, Ruby was held tightly in his older sister’s arms, and looked perfectly fine.

“I’m fine Yang, but guys, you have to listen. Torchwick has all sorts of weapons and robots down there,” the young leader said, gesturing towards a larger section of the cavern. “Androids, mechs, they’re all loaded up on the train cars!”

Doctor Oobleck scoffed. “That’s ridiculous, all these tunnels are sealed.”

Flyte jumped in realization. “Wait, isn’t Torchwick the guy who is responsible for all of those dust robberies? He probably has enough fire dust to blow up a large building!” In the background, a speaker crackled to life and the hiss of a train starting its engines echoed in the vaulting cave. 

“Well, it sounds like they're going to be going somewhere!” Yang exclaimed. 

Ruby fumbled at the pouch on her hip, pulling out her scroll. “We need back up! Let me call Jaune,” she said, punching in his number before the scroll beeped, the no signal message flashing across the screen. 

An icy feeling washed down Viridian’s back. He jerked his head to face Feuer. “Quick, summon a griffin, or any grimm that has wings. We’ll fly back and warn Beacon of the possibility of an attack.”

Feuer nodded and held out his hand, a glowing white glyph appearing in front of him. Viridian startled when he felt a hand grasp his shoulder and he looked up at Indigo. “What are you thinking? We can’t risk splitting up!” A snowy white grimm roared to life. 

“I’m thinking that unlike with Stain, we can’t ask for backup because no one knows where we are, and without warning, this may end up like the USJ, and I can’t let that happen.” Indigo reeled back, but quickly nodded and let go of Viridian’s shoulder. Feuer stretched out a hand from where he sat astride a glowing nevermore and Viridian grasped his hand as he pulled himself up. “Let’s go,” and with a shriek, the nevermore flapped its wings and shot out of the cave.

Indigo stared up at the quickly fading grimm and turned to the rest. “We should get on that train,” Doctor Oobleck stated, and all six students started to run for the train that was just starting to pull away from where it had sat for years. The teams scaled the very last caboose. The doctor made short work of a White Fang member standing watch at the back and then climbed onto the roof of the car. All the while, Flyte murmured under her breath. Listening in, Indigo couldn’t help but wince. He’d forgotten that they hadn’t told her about the truth behind the Stain fight. His thoughts were cut off as team RWBY pulled back a hatch to reveal a bomb that began to beep just as Ruby pointed out the group of faunus nearly a dozen cars ahead of them but already headed towards them, all carrying a varying degree of weaponry. “Everyone, get to the next train car, Blake, cut the caboose, or it will kill us all!” the doctor ordered and everyone scrambled to follow his orders, all the while reading their weapons. Indigo reached for the scabbard on his back and pulled out his compact greatsword, and with a flick, it extended outwards to its full length. Besides him, Flyte pulled out her twin knives and fired up the small boosters at the bottom of her boots. 

Behind them, he heard Blake yell out to the doctor, “The caboose decoupled itself!” and Doctor Oobleck’s own shocked response before a loud explosion racked the cavern. Slightly ahead of him, Ruby pulled open another compartment, yelling back to the huntsman for his attention. “Another bomb?” Blake questioned, panic slipping into her voice. Doctor Oobleck ran over to the car ahead of them, muttering under his breath and yanked the hatch open.

“They all have bombs!” Indigo shared a look with Flyte and instinctively started running to the next car just as the car separated and the bomb becan to tick. He and the others quickly flew into battle, pushing back the wave of White Fang members. The last train car exploded and Indigo chanced a look back at the explosion, spying the tunnel ceiling collapse and the subsequent Grimm that fell down to fill the tunnel. The plan that Viridian had been grasping at clicked and he rushed back to the doctor.

“Sir! I think I know what they’re trying to do!” 

His professor nodded in agreement. “As do I.” With that, the two ran back to join the girls, Oobleck quickly telling them that, “They’re luring Grimm into the main city!”

“The train cars periodically detach themselves and explode, creating openings for the grimm to come through, just like how they came through when the people of Mountain Glen were attacked and killed,” Indigo finished. 

Doctor Oobleck gave a short and precise nod. “Blake, Wiess, Yang, you three go down below into the cars and try to stop the bombs. The rest of us shall stop this train!” With an assuring nod from their leader, the team split. Just then, the first of what was probably many mechs to come jumped up to join them at the top of the train cars. The doctor took a final swig from his once again collapsed canister, before grinning madly. He readied his extended weapon like a bat,and with a swing, launched Ruby’s dog in a fiery blaze, causing Flyte to yelp in shock. 

“Pshh, it’s fine,” Ruby reassured even as the fiery ball crashed into the mech and they and their professor jumped into action. “We’ve been feeding Zwei a safe mixture of dust with his food ever since we got him, he’s very sturdy.”

Tage Null didn’t particularly like where he had ended up. He had the unfortunate luck to lose his parents to a grimm attack in his youth, and was subsequently picked up by a group of bandits. He has since never left. He had seriously considered up and leaving around sixteen years ago before he caught wind of a rumor circling the camp and decided at the very least, he could stay and learn from the enemy's side of things. And learn he did. 

Sixteen years ago, Raven Brawnwen returned to the camp and swiftly took charge of the bandits herself, her twin brother nowhere in sight. She refused to speak of him and frequently cursed his name. Tage slowly was able to build trust in the newly established leader. And finally, he complimented himself on his decision to remain when that decision was based on nothing more than a rumor. He learned about the headmaster of Beacon, the maidens, the relics, and surprisingly, the existence of Raven’s daughter. The latter certainly explained why she had been gone until recently, though he held his tongue as to not berate her for abandoning a baby to grow up with only a father to look after her. Which brought him to the present day. He, Raven, and the girl she had picked up a year or two ago, Vernal, were in her main encampment when Raven suddenly picked up her mask and opened one of her portals, and stepped through. Only a moment later another opened up next to Vernal and she stepped back into the room. 

Tage raised an eyebrow in question. “My daughter. I get her out of trouble once and that’s it. If she wants to find me, she may do so herself,” Raven explained. 

“I didn’t know you had a daughter,” Vernal mused. 

Raven sniffed in disdain. “The result of a mistake on my part. I got too attached to that damn team and was caught up in a scheme that I did not agree to. My brother never learned, he trusts that treacherous man with his life despite the fact that the girl who was our leader died at his hands.” Vernal hmmed at the answer before turning away. Tage sipped at the cup in front of him.

“And your daughter? How is she?”

“Hmph. She’s inexperienced, and knows nothing when it comes to properly fighting enemies. I found her completely beaten at the hands of a thief’s sidekick. She at the very least should learn something before that festival in a few months. I’ll watch purely for the reason to see what she’s learned if anything.” 

Tage, at the very least, thought he would take the opportunity of the Festival to search. One of his class, he thinks, has to show up at the tournament sooner or later, and if one of them does this year, he’ll finally leave this camp.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah!!! I finished Volume two!! I also took the time to outline volumes four through 6, mostly because I had some issues with those volumes and decided they needed a few tweaks. 
> 
> Let’s talk, I’m curious, what did you guys think of those volumes?
> 
> Anyways, see you next week -ish for the tournament!
> 
> -your local multi fandom fangirl


	11. Vital

Weiss sunk gratefully into the stadium seats after her truly enormous lunch. Beside her, Ruby bounced up and down in excitement as she watched team JNPR stand face to face with their competing team. She shared an amused glance with her brother, as he sat next to his own team leader, equally eager for the match to begin as his sister, though he had a notebook out and was already scratching out notes on the rapidly filling page. The match soon began, Pyrrah quickly proving herself to the most capable of the students in the arena. So absorbed in cheering for the fight was she, her team, her brother’s team and friends that they missed the group headed to prepare for the next match. So absorbed in the blows that the teams exchanged that they did not notice as a girl dressed in entirely pink stumbled when she swore up and down that she saw a cinnamon roll sitting next to a certified pretty boy in the stands. She would have marched on backwards had her team not be next up and they needed to get to the waiting rooms before the current match ended. All this happened as Weiss and all her friends surrounding her hadn’t been cheering for their friends as Nora quickly made her way up the mountain to where the small electrical storm generated by the dust powered arena was spitting lightning, just ready for the bubbly girl to grab ahold of. The fight didn’t last too long after that. The Beacon side of the stands cheered as with a single hit of a hammer, the opposing team was knocked out of bounds. 

“What a wonderful display of strength! Team JNPR moves on to the doubles round!” Weiss heard Professor Port state over the roaring stadium on the intercom. “As the team exits the stage, we invite everyone to start cheering for the next match, Beacon’s own team CRDL, versus all the way from Atlas, team PPAS!” Wiess eagerly leaned forward to study the new team. If there was even a chance she would go up against them, she should learn all there is to know of them. The group consisted of an equal number of boys and girls. One girl was kind of plain to look at, Weiss would have overlooked her in a crowd, whereas the other girl was eye catching, with dyed pink hair to match with her pink outfit contrasting with her darker skin tone. The boys, similarly balanced each other out, with one taller and built with muscles and the other wearing rather shiny armour, the air seemingly shimmering in the light around him. She watched with interest as the arena split into a dense forest and a ruined city, waiting for the signal to, “Start!”

Cardin and his team immediately hefted their weapons and charged towards the team of… three? One of the girls had seemingly vanished. The other lifted a pair of pistols up, wires connecting them to a tank on her back, the boys readying themselves for the fight, one lifting his fists into a fighting stance the other his ornate bow. There was a sudden flash of bright light and CRDL staggered from the intensity. The fourth team member had reappeared only to disappear from view immediately after. A teleportation semblance perhaps, Wiess wondered, thoughts wrapping around her head, keeping her from noticing the electrified atmosphere beside her as her brother and his team whipped their heads around to one another in excitement and realization. 

In the arena, the armoured boy had notched several arrows and had let them fly, pushing Cardin’s team back and separating them into one on one battles with bursts of brilliant light, and the pink girl was wearing away at the crumbled structures with blasts of a greyish liquid from her pistols, causing rubble to fall down on the boy she was fighting against. Cardin himself was swinging his mace around like a madman, seemingly attacking an enemy that wasn’t there, bar the occasional bursts of light that would force him to cover his eyes, allowing him to be gradually ensnared in a growing web of wires. The fight didn’t last much longer after that. Team CRDL was either tossed out of the ring or passed out on the ground and the winning team PPAS were all laughing and high fiving each other in congratulations. Weiss leaned back into her seat, thoughts swirling around her head. The team was well coordinated, and certainly skilled, as expected from an Atlas team. Their methods were more unorthodox than she thought they would be, but she couldn't say she was all that surprised about that either, looking at the bright colors the team proudly wore. There was a flurry of movement to her left and she looked over at CRHT who were rapidly standing up to get out of their seats and then hurriedly walked away. She turned to her brother. “Where are they going?”

Feuer looked up, answering, “Momo was going to get something to eat. She wants to be sure she’s taken in enough food before their fight.” She nodded in understanding. Of course, Creu wanted to be prepared, that’s how she always was, and--her brother’s words caught up to her. Momo? Maybe it was a nickname, but she hadn't heard him use it before. Before she could question him any further, he glanced upwards and immediately shot up and grabbed her hand. 

“Hey!” He merely pointed at an approaching airship, Atleisan in origin, with banners trailing in the breeze. She gasped, and a smile blossomed across her face. “She’s here!”

“Who?” Wiess glanced behind her to see Ruby and Viridian, the latter looking a little harried and worried, the former only having a look of confusion on her own face. 

Feuer finished for her. “Our older sister, Winter.”

Syre stretched her arms high above her head in victory with a beaming smile and her opponent under her foot. As the Beacon professor announced their win over the intercom, she jumped up and held out her palms where she was met with rewarding high-fives. She watched as the medical team came out to aid the two boys that had used up their aura and were knocked out on the arena floor and took the time to look back up into the stadium where she swore she saw Midoriya. There was a tug at her arm, and she turned to see Perdu smiling at her, and, not for the last time, enjoyed being able to look her friend in the eye. Syre grinned back and the two linked arms, skipped over to the boys and joined them.

“Mon amis! That was tres magnifique! An absolutely stunning performance!” Paris cried out as he folded his bow and tucked it away. Sykur nodded in agreement. 

“I should see if I can make some kind of treat when we get back to the dorms.” Pyre pumped her fist in joy, her pink curls settling around her face. The team laughed and made their way off the arena stage and out into the hallway where their laughs suddenly cut off. Standing in the hallway was another team, consisting of three girls and one boy, all with growing smiles plastered on their faces as both teams looked into the eyes of the missing pieces to their family. A moment passed before Momo began to shed tears of joy and the two teams developed each other in a large hug.

Syre snuggled her head into the crook of her friend’s necks and joy bubbled up in her chest as everyone clicked together, just like they always were. She stepped back and wiped her hand under her eyes, careful not to mess with the pink makeup she used, and watched as everyone else similarly composed themselves. Sykur gave the group a wry smile before turning to her and saying, “I guess you really did see Midoryia?” The other team laughed. 

“Kero, we’ve been waiting on you guys for months now, kero.” PPAS exchanged excited glances with one another before turning to their friends for confirmation. 

Jiro twirled a stand of hair around her finger, just as she used to do with her earphone jacks, and nodded. “Yeah, twelve of us met up here at Beacon, before another four showed up as exchange students from Haven.” She gave them a fond look. “We’re going to head down to the festival to relax and have fun. Want to join us?”

“Do we?” Syre cried out, and everyone burst into fresh peels of laughter, and everything was right as rain once more. 

Winter stepped out of her flagship with all the grace and dignity befitting an Atlas special operative, her steely and cold gaze sweeping over the courtyard leading up to Beacon Academy. Her eyes locked onto a head of red and white hair, her younger brother and sister quickly running up to her, followed by two others, a girl in black and red and a boy in green. She stopped at the foot of the transport ramp and stood stiffly at attention as her siblings approached. “Winter!” her sister eagerly started. “I’m so happy to see you!” Winter raised an eyebrow as Wiess caught herself. “I mean, your presence honors us.” Feuer merely gave her his typical bow that he had adopted when it came to greeting people. The boy behind him followed suit, the girl did nothing more than stand awkwardly behind the twins in confusion. One of them clearly had more respect than the other, she knew who she approved more of. 

Winter took a few steps forwards, “Beacon,” she mused, “It’s been a long time since I’ve last been here. The air feels different.” And of course it did. If anything she had been hearing hinted by the General was any indication, then something was surely brewing beneath the calm surface of the city. 

The young girl spoke up sheepishly. “I mean, it is fall. It’s probably colder.” Wiess gave the girl a hard look before clipping the back of the girl's head, forcing her into a slight bow. 

“So what are you doing here?” Her sister inquired. 

“Classified.”

“Oh. Right. Well, how long are you staying?’

“Classified.”

“Of course,” she accepted. 

A moment of silence passed, broken only by the distant chatter of background characters. The young girl scrunched up the sides of her black and red skirt, eyes flickering to and fro. “Well, this is nice.” she interjected, refusing to look at anyone in the eyes. “I think.” The green haired boy tapped her arm.

“Be polite,” he admonished gently. 

Weiss had clearly been holding in a dam of emotions, and could not hold it back any further. “Winter, you are going to love it here!” she excitedly exclaimed. “I know you travel a lot, but so much at Beacon here is different from Atlas! Vale too. The government and school are completely separate, can you believe it?” She clearly would have said more, but Winter had heard enough.

“I am more than familiar with how this kingdom runs its,” she paused to search for the right words, “bureaucracy. That is not why I came here.”

Weiss stiffened and stood up straighter. “Right.” Feuer had since not spoken a word, though he generally was content to stay quiet, only really speaking around the Gossamer heir. Winter did note that he was standing rather close to the green donned boy. “I’m sorry,” Weiss continued.

“Nor did I come here to see my own blood fail so miserably in battle,” Winter stated, voice calm and undisturbed. “But it appears I have no choice in the matter.” She couldn’t really speak for Feuer, he had taken it upon himself to learn to battle and summon his glyphs. Her sister, however, she had personally taught and as such had expectations that clearly had not been reached. She trained her sister to be perfect, anything less would mean their father’s interference. Weiss started to protest Winter’s words, only for the operative to cut her off. “Only a novice would refer to that as a victory. I counted at least three strikes missed.” Her sister bowed her head in shame, and Winter’s gave softened. She held up a hand to the Atlesian Knights that had been assigned to her. “Leave us,” she directed them. The knights stepped back with a beep and a whirr of noise. She looked at her younger siblings and sighed. She tried for a kind smile. “How have you been?”

Weiss immediately perked up. “Oh, splendid, thank you for asking. Feuer and I are actually some of the top ranking in our sparring class, and we’ve maintained perfect grades as well.” Winter felt her blood boil just a little bit. Why was it that her father had such thorns in her, that she refused to even entertain the thought that she might be asking for her well being and not scores and statistics that could be measured to others? Before Weiss could continue, she raised her hand and hit the side of her head, shaking her out of her speech.

“Silence you dolt!” Wiess rubbed the side of her head. “I don’t recall asking about your ranking.” Winter tried very hard not to lose her upstanding facade but desperately, desperately, wanted to just hear that her siblings were doing well out of their father's care unlike Whitely. “I asked how you've been. Are you eating properly? Have you taken up any hobbies? Are you making new friends?”

Wiess paused and glanced at the young girl next to her. “Well, there’s Ruby,” the girl in question gave a smile and tapped Wiess’ head with a ‘boop.’ Her sister gave a wry sort of smile that betrayed fondness for the girl.

Winter hummed. “I see, so this is the leader you wrote of.” Wiess had written letters, few, but they were there. The first few were sparse, speaking of a young and inexperienced child that had been chosen to lead her team. The letters varied, and Weiss kept her informed of her rising status and increasing skills, the tentative peace that had been reached in the team and the fragility of their team’s bonds as one of them had run away and shut herself up in a self dug hole. Winter looked Ruby up and down and gave her final thoughts. “How appropriately, underwhelming.” There was nothing that told Winter that this girl was supposed to be a leader, she carried herself with not an assuredness and confidence of a strong willed leader, but the awkwardness and childishness of a girl barely ready for a school like Beacon.

“Uh, thank you?” the girl said.

“Greetings, Ruby Rose. I wish to thank you for the interest you have taken in my sister.”

The girl fumbled a bit. “Uh, of course! The honor is, ah,” she spread her skirt and dipped into a barely acceptable curtsy, “in my court.” Ruby gave a shaky smile, before tripping over her own feet and she flailed her arms to regain balance, standing up straight as soon as she had done so with a nervous laugh. Winter gave her a small smile. For as inexperienced as she was, she clearly had been breaking Weiss out of the shell she had constructed all those years ago. 

She turned to face her brother. “And you, Feuer, how have you been?”

Feuer tipped his head up to look at her and gave a small, but genuine smile, face brighter than it had ever been at home in Atlas. “I’ve been doing well. Creu makes sure we all eat well and much of our teams have taken to spending weekends in Vale talking.” The boy next to him gave him a shining smile and Feuer looked back at him and returned it in kind. He gestured to the boy, “And this is Viridian, my team leader.”

Viridian bent into another bow. “It’s an honor to meet you. Feuer and Wiess both look up to you so much and it’s great to finally meet their older sister.” She nodded in approval and watched as Feuer looped an arm arout Viridian’s waist holding him in a loose embrace. She was glad her brother had found someone who made him happy. He rarely showed his emotions at home and only did so in the presence of his one friend. 

She gave the four a small smile. “Now, I have some things to discuss with the General and your headmaster. But seeing as I’m early, why don’t you show me your quarters?”

Weiss gasped. “Really?”

She nodded. “Yes,” she started to say as she stepped forward, the knights following behind her. “I want to inspect them to make sure they’re up to my standards.” She personally hoped they would be immaculate and well organized, with everything in its place. 

“Of course,” her sister exclaimed, before her eyes took on a more wary look. “Just so you know, the bunk beds only look unstable.”

“Bunk beds?”

Raven placed her glass on the table of the bar she and several of the others in her encampment had taken over, staring at the screen as it projected the first of the two on two battles from Amity Arena. Behind her, a fight broke out between some men and she paid no mind as Vernal stepped forward and slammed the men’s heads into the bar. Raven took a sip of her drink. Vernal really was stepping into her role nicely. She set her glass down with a clink and glanced at Tage. He’d hardly moved once he first saw the beginning of the festival, eyes locked on the screen. She moved her own gaze back to the current battle. A boy with two hair colors and his partner, a boy dressed in green were fighting against two others. They were clearly superior in talent and in teamwork, and she raised a brow when the first boy dressed in a royal blue stuck one of his swords in the ground and a large white Ursa grimm sprang forth. A Schnee, no doubt of that. And the other boy, she couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but he looked familiar. A glyph appeared on screen and the freckled boy leapt off of it, swinging his body around to kick both opponents out of bounds. 

“What a knockout! Team RIFF’s Viridian Rose and Feuer Schnee win their match and progress to the singles round!” Raven sucked in a tiny breath. Rose, of course, that was why he looked so familiar, that was why she recognized him. It didn’t explain how Tage recognized them, because he only perked up in attention when certain teams were on screen. Otherwise, he had his face sunk deep in his silvery grey scarf. He had to have some kind of connection with them. But that didn’t make sense. He, like Raven, was raised in the camp. She took a final sip from her glass, swearing to ask him about it in the morning as she dropped the empty glass on the wooden table.

But in the morning, Tage was gone, having disappeared without a trace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!! I’m back! This took a little longer than expected to write, so sorry about that. Im not going to get another chapter up until after my AP tests are finished with, so two weeks. Then I’ll be done with high school! Woohoo!
> 
> Edit: sorry this has been taking so long! I had to hand over my computer with my rough drafts on it for repairs (I was freaking out!!! Just before my AP art history exam my computer started giving me blue screens of death and I was in such a panic. Unfortunately there was a glitch on the exam itself and I couldn’t submit my final essay so I have to retake it >:( anyways) and I’ve only just gotten it back and out of the quarantine box. The next chapter shall be out shortly!!
> 
> Character list-  
New team:  
PPAS (like a mountain pass)  
Perdu Obscure - The invisible girl, Hagakure  
Paris Glitz - our resident French boi, Aoyama  
Sykur Afl - Sato, the guy we all wished was in our life to shower us in homemade desserts  
Syre Rosa - the one and only Alien Queen, Mina  
Previously introduced teams:  
RIFF (like a rift, a divide)  
Viridian Rose - Midoryia  
Indigo Fleet - Iida  
Feuer Schnee - Todoroki  
Flyte Recherche - Uraraka  
CRHT (crit, short for critical)  
Creu Gossamer - Yaoyorozu  
Radio Pulse - Jiro  
Orchid Hypnos - Shinsou  
Frosch Thorne - Asui  
STRC (strike)  
Ashen Smoke - Bakugo  
Thunder Blitz - Kaminari  
Ryder Agilis - Sero  
Forte Crest - Kirishima  
OHRE (ore)  
Oscuro Corvo - Tokoyami  
Hale Balance - Ojiro  
Braccio Raddoppiare - Shoji  
Dyr Eunoia - Koda  
Non team characters:  
Tage Null - Aizawa
> 
>   
Uhh... I’m doing Mermay on my insta if anyone wants to check that out, username is exactly the same as this one, and feel free to dm me if you just want to chat! 
> 
> Until next time!  
-your local multi fandom fangirl


	12. Alone

Qrow smiled fondly at the kids before him. Yang gave him a half-hearted glare as she looked at him and the end of his story. Qrow returned his attention to the holo screen and the game he was crushing. “So Uncle Qrow, what are you doing here?” Ruby questioned. “Dad said you’d be out on a mission for like, forever.”

Qrow gave her a small shrug, the drinks that he had earlier weighing his limbs down. “Well,” he rasped, “when you’re a professional huntsman like me, you’re expected to get results, and to get them as quickly as possible.”

Yang playfully shoved his shoulder. “Yeah, we know. We’re basically professionals ourselves.” On the bed, Ruby nodded, but next to her, Viridian shook his head.

“Ruby, we helped take one criminal down, but that doesn’t make us professional huntsmen. We’re still students.” Yang turned to give her brother’s leg a light punch.

“Oh, lighten up bro! But seriously, we’re good! Crime’s been down ever since we put Torchwick in prison.”

“No,” Qrow interrupted. “Crime hasn’t just been down. It’s stopped completely. No White Fang, no nothing.” Viridian’s eyes widened factionally.

“Just like before the USJ,” he muttered under his breath. 

Ruby tilted her head. “What was that Vir?”

Viridian's head jerked up. “Huh? Oh, uh, nothing. Just thinking.” His eyes flickered over his sisters before meeting Qrow’s own. And once again, Qrow was struck with the feeling that Viridian was much more than his siblings combined, that his nephew knew more than he let on. Qrow always found the boy to be more mature than others his age, that he was weighed down by something he or Tai couldn’t understand. The moment passed and Viridian stood up from his seat on the bed. He murmured that he was going to check up on his team and quietly stepped out into the hall, disappearing from sight. 

Later that evening, after he had left his nieces to their own devices, Qrow sat in a bar nursing a glass of something. He wasn’t quite sure what it was anymore, and he only cared that it was strong enough to dull his mind and blur the edges of his vision. He was tired. The girls shouldn’t look up to him like they do. Especially Ruby, she was too much like her mother, and Summer was always too good for their team. But she was gone, gone and never coming back. The clashing of blades and colors on the screen behind the bartender drowned out all other noise. Isolated. Just by himself. The door to the bar opened and closed softly and at the corner of his eye, Qrow watched a man dressed in blacks and greys walk up to the counter and take a seat. Qrow looked back at the glass in his hand. This man had been in and out of this bar over the time he’d been in Vale, and he’d seen him around the kingdom, never talking to anyone, always by himself. Something at the back of his mind murmured to him, but Qrow pushed it down, his mind too far gone to want to investigate. The man didn’t look dangerous, just tired. He took a gulp of his drink, letting the burning sensation of the fiery liquid pour down his throat. He stood, the stool he had been perched on scraping against the wooden floor and Qrow tossed some lien onto the counter, staggering slightly as he walked to the door. He felt the eyes of another at his back, but his mind was too far gone, gone like everyone else he had cursed. The door swung open and the crisp air stung his skin. He walked back to the room he was staying in, never seeing the man waiting outside the bar, tall, blond, and with piercing blue eyes dressed in Atlesian blues and reds. 

Never seeing how he would step into the bar and sit next to a man dressed in blacks and greys, both pairs of eyes staring up at the screen, replaying their student’s tournament matches. 

Froshe smiled as she and her friends walked down the hall to CRHT’s room, the group laughing and enjoying finally being together again. But Froshe paused as she rounded a corner and saw Pyrrha standing in front of her dorm’s door. She made no movement to open it. She only stood there. Creu and Radio traded looks with one another and they picked up their pace to reach the lone girl. “Pyrrha? Are you okay?” Flyte asked. The red head stiffened and turned to face the group.

“Oh, um, I’m fine!”

“You don’t look fine, kero. I think you’re lying.” Froshe stated. 

Pyrrha flushed slightly and her head fell.

Flyte took a step forward, gently placing her hand on her arm. “Would you like to join us in our room? We were going to catch up with our old friend Syre.” The girl in question gave a bright smile and waved at Pyrrha. The girl nodded quietly and the group led her to their room. They all settled on the beds, Flyte and Syre taking over Orchid’s, and a silence befell the room. It was only broken by the soft sniffles as tears began to roll down Pyrra’s face. She covered her face and hunched over from her place besides Creu as she cried. Ever the caring person, Creu wrapped her arms around the distraught Pyrrha and held her tightly as the rest of the girls moved to be closer to them. The cries eventually died down, and Pyrrha wiped her eyes and gave the girls a weak smile. 

“Thank you.”

Flyte pat her leg. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Pyrrha hesitated. “I-I don’t know if I can. But I want to.” She took a deep breath. “I’ve been offered a choice. A choice that could give me my destiny and every dream I’ve had in a second. But I do so at the risk of losing who I am. And, I, I don’t know what to do.” Froshe looked at her girlfriend and Flyte nodded in agreement.

“Kero, Flyte and I had a friend who had something like that happen.” The other girls shared a look. “He was just slightly younger than us at the time, kero, and he was offered the opportunity to grasp his dream, but once he had done so, he sacrificed himself to many things. In a matter of months, he had completely destroyed one of his arms, so much so that it would never heal correctly again, kero.” 

Pyrrha looked at her. “Even with an aura?”

Flyte nodded. “Even with the aid of someone who had the power to heal others. It was horrible. He was such an inspirational person, he had so much hope to share with people, but he was destroying himself to help others, and it hurt not just him, but us as well,” her hands bunched up her skirt as they clenched the fabric of it. “But he eventually was able to make the opportunity given to him his own.”

Creu finished the thought. “Pyrrha, if this choice you’re being offered may change you, then you should not be hasty in your decision, but you can always turn what others give to you into your own power.”

At that moment the dorm room door opened and Orchid took a step in the room.

Syre groaned. “You are a superior purple boy and I love you, but get out of the room.” The girls burst into laughter as he rolled his eyes and backed out, and though Froshe could see that Pyrrha was comforted, she still held a weight in her eyes that Froshe wasn’t sure would go away anytime soon.

Yang curled up further on her bed, covering her eyes with her bare arms. She had thrown Ember Celica across the room after the general, the rest of team RWBY and Vir left. She knew what she saw, she’d swear on it. But what was her word against the word of everyone one else? What was her word against Mercury’s who had to be carried out of the arena on a stretcher? She sat up and looked out the window, spying JNPR walking off the grounds. She sighed. 

“Hey there, firecracker,” she heard a raspy voice say. Yang spun around to face her uncle leaning against the wall next to the door. 

“Hey Qrow,” she murmured, before letting her eyes settle on the wooden floor. 

“So,” he started. “Why’d you do it?”

Yang felt her anger bubbling back up again, flames licking at the already fiery emotion. “You know why I did it.”

“All I know is that you attacked a helpless kid,” he cut in. “So either you’re lying, or you’re crazy.”

Her voice came out flat, her barely concealed anger sitting under the words. “I’m not lying.” 

He shrugged. “Crazy then. Got it.” He leaned forward and pushed himself off of the wall to walk towards her. 

“Who knows. Maybe I am.” He snorted and made some comment about Blake she ignored, rolling the idea of her being crazy around in her mind.

“I thought I saw mom,” she murmured, and Qrows pacing and the click of his shoes stopped in surprise. “I, I was in a lot of trouble. Took a hard hit, but when I came to, the person I was fighting was gone. And I thought I saw her.” Qrow remained silent. “I thought I saw her sword, like the one in your and dad’s picture.” Maybe she really was going crazy. Imagining her mother, and then Mercury attacking her. She must have just hit her head and then the crazy girl left her for dead. 

But Qrow scoffed. “You’re not crazy Yang,” he said, as if he could hear her thoughts. She looked up at him and met his gaze. “That was your mom.” He shook his head. “Let me guess, she didn’t say a word did she?”

Yang kept looking at her uncle. “How did you-?”

“I don’t see my sister very often, but she does try to keep in touch, when it suits her.” He gazed out the open window and into the sky. 

But Yang’s mind was spinning more than ever. “Wait, you’ve talked to her? That was real?” She couldn’t believe that her closest connection to her mother had been infront of her this entire time. 

“She had a tip for my most recent assignment.” He paused and looked Yang in the eyes. “And she wanted me to give you a message.”

Yang felt as if her heart had stopped, had come to a stand still. Her mother had something to tell her? Her anger began to bubble up again. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner!?” she exclaimed.

Qrow had started his pacing again and was now in front of the window. “I was waiting for the right time, and this sure ain't it.” Yang bored her eyes into the back of his head. “But I guess you deserve to know.” He turned to face her once more. “She wanted me to tell you that she saved you once, but that you shouldn’t expect such kindness again.” Yang felt tears welling up in her eyes for the second time that hour. She had never felt so isolated from the world. She had let her team down, she was miles away from home, and her own mother couldn’t even spare the kindness to talk to her. Qrow pressed onward. “Raven’s got a particular way of looking at the world that I don't really agree with, and she’s dangerous.” He knelt down in front of her. “But you’re a tough egg, kiddo. You shouldn’t let this tournament thing get you down. You had a slip up, but sometimes bad things just happen.” His voice had turned slightly bitter towards the end of that sentence, but it picked back up quickly. “I say, it’s time to move on.”

Yang peeked up at her uncle. “Move on to what?” What was there to move on to? She was alone in the world now, how could she move forward?

“Well, Raven let some info slip before she took off.” Qrow gave her a wry smile. “If you ever want to track her down, I think I may be able to help.”

Yang looked away. “I don’t want to track her down. Not anymore. She abandoned me, I don’t need her.” She left me in the care of her own teammate, she thought, and she never looked back even when her own partner died. 

Qrow ruffled her hair. “But I think you still want some answers.” He stood back up and walked towards the door. “But if you do decide to change your mind, I’ll be here,” and with that, he stepped outside and closed the door, leaving Yang alone with her turbulent thoughts and dimming anger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m back! My computer is fixed, I’ve finished my tests, and I have a diploma!!
> 
> We’re about to get into the meat of Volume 3, so expect hefty chapters!
> 
> I look forward to getting back into writing and I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter!! Until next time!
> 
> -your local multi fandom fangirl
> 
> Character list-  
New team:  
PPAS (like a mountain pass)  
Perdu Obscure - The invisible girl, Hagakure  
Paris Glitz - our resident French boi, Aoyama  
Sykur Afl - Sato, the guy we all wished was in our life to shower us in homemade desserts  
Syre Rosa - the one and only Alien Queen, Mina  
Previously introduced teams:  
RIFF (like a rift, a divide)  
Viridian Rose - Midoryia  
Indigo Fleet - Iida  
Feuer Schnee - Todoroki  
Flyte Recherche - Uraraka  
CRHT (crit, short for critical)  
Creu Gossamer - Yaoyorozu  
Radio Pulse - Jiro  
Orchid Hypnos - Shinsou  
Frosch Thorne - Asui  
STRC (strike)  
Ashen Smoke - Bakugo  
Thunder Blitz - Kaminari  
Ryder Agilis - Sero  
Forte Crest - Kirishima  
OHRE (ore)  
Oscuro Corvo - Tokoyami  
Hale Balance - Ojiro  
Braccio Raddoppiare - Shoji  
Dyr Eunoia - Koda  
Non team characters:  
Tage Null - Aizawa


	13. End Act I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Character list-  
Teams:  
PPAS (like a mountain pass)  
Perdu Obscure - Hagakure  
Paris Glitz - Ayaoma   
Sykur Afl - Sato  
Syre Rosa - Mina  
RIFF (like a rift, a divide)  
Viridian Rose - Midoryia  
Indigo Fleet - Iida  
Feuer Schnee - Todoroki  
Flyte Recherche - Uraraka  
CRHT (crit, short for critical)  
Creu Gossamer - Yaoyorozu  
Radio Pulse - Jiro  
Orchid Hypnos - Shinsou  
Frosch Thorne - Asui  
STRC (strike)  
Ashen Smoke - Bakugo  
Thunder Blitz - Kaminari  
Ryder Agilis - Sero  
Forte Crest - Kirishima  
OHRE (ore)  
Oscuro Corvo - Tokoyami  
Hale Balance - Ojiro  
Braccio Raddoppiare - Shoji  
Dyr Eunoia - Koda  
Non team characters:  
Tage Null - Aizawa

Ruby collapsed to the ground, legs weak and limbs shaking. “Penny,” she sobbed, hot, fat tears streaming down her face. The pounding of feet running down the hall to the exit beating in time with her aching heart and ragged breath. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Penny was her friend, she couldn’t lose her. And Pyrrha, she hiccuped. What was Pyrrha thinking? Pyrrha, who probably was standing shock still, who would never hurt a fly, who loved all her friends. How could this possibly be her fault? The screech of the nevermore echoed around her. Ruby’s legs shook and she struggled to stand. She could hear Jaune yelling in desperation. She needed to help him. She wanted to be a hero, she would help people. The barrier shattered like glass and Ruby burst into rose petals.

Pyrrha stood in the arena. She could not pull her eyes away from the body she had mutilated. She could hear Jaune, sweet, wonderful Jaune, yelling for her to move, to run, but she stood in the arena, feet stuck on the ground, eyes stuck on the body of the girl she fought, that she killed. What had she done? The nevermore descended in a fury of black, and Pyrrha stood, waiting for her fate. And she fell.

Viridian jumped in a flash of green lightning, his team just behind him. Ruby had stalled the nevermore, but a single sword wasn’t enough to kill it. With his greatsword, Indigo separated a chunk of the arena floor, which Flyte picked up and threw at the grimm. The bird staggered backwards with a shriek as Viridian and Feuer went in for the final blow. The grimm quickly faded into ash and Viridian turned to look at his sister, kneeling besides Pyrrha on the ground who had her head in her hands, crying.

“I’m sorry,” she was saying. “I’m so, so sorry.” 

“Me too. But it wasn’t your fault,” Ruby comforted.

“She’s right,” Jaune stated, stepping forward with Pyrrah’s discarded shield and spear in hand. Other students were gathering around, weapons in hand. “Whoever was on the microphone, they did this, and we have to make sure they don’t take anyone else away from us.”

Pyrrha looked up at him and gave him a wane smile. There was a sudden cacophony of noise and the students looked up as a horde of gryphon perched and flying over the rim of the arena. Ruby quickly retrieved her scythe, and just as the gryphons began to swoop down, there was a loud bang, and they scattered. They turned to look at Professor Port and Dr. Oobleck. 

“Students,” the professor started. “I think it would be best if you were to leave.”

Ruby began to protest but Oobleck cut her off. “Miss Rose!” There was a pause as the students looked at their teachers, and for the first time saw them as huntsmen. “This day will surely go down in Remnant’s history. I’d prefer it if my students could live to tell about it,” he finished with a small smile. His sister nods, and gestures for the group of rag tag teams to follow her out to the arena docks. The class ran out as the two teachers stood back to back, ready to face the descending army. The docks were still in chaos, hoards of people, students and civilians alike, scrambling to get onto a ship and leave. It was then, ships began docking and Viridan’s team looked on in horror as grimm were unloaded onto the arena docks. They shared a glance to ensure that everyone had come to the same conclusion. Viridian’s tip from Qrow really was the silence before the storm. However, before they could join the fray, the general stopped them. 

“What’s going on?” his sister cried out in question.

The general looked as if he were choosing his words carefully. “Grimm are crawling all over the city. The White Fang has invaded Beacon, and, to make matters worse, some vagabond has seized on of my ships. Until we regain command, the skies are out of our control. So I’m,” he quickly shot a charging Ursa, “going to take it back,” finishing with hardly a pause. He then turned to walk up the waiting ramp of a ship.

“What should we do?” Jaune asked him.

Ironwood stopped and turned to look at them. “You have two choices, defend your kingdom, and your school, or save yourselves.” His eyes seemed to soften slightly. “No one will fault you if you leave.”

Ashen snorted. “I will.” Forte punched his arm.

The general turned to the ship once more. “Let’s move out.”

“Wait, general, sir,” Viridian said. “Wouldn’t it be better if a few of us went with you?” Ironwood gave a sharp nod, and gestured with his head to follow. Viridian turned to Ruby. “Stay safe, I’ll see you soon,” giving her his signature smile. “Come on,” and with that, the rest of RIFF and team CRHT followed the Atlesian general into the ship and the door closed on the students on the dock, already running to join the battle. The two teams followed him past a small legion of Atlesian Knights, standing at attention and into the main command center of the ship. 

There was a low rumble signaling the ship taking off that Creu felt surging through her nerves. She took a deep breath to calm herself. The general input some information at the consol, before turning to face them. “I understand,” he started, “that you are teams RIFF and CRHT, some of the highest ranking teams this year.” The two teams exchanged looks and nodded in accordance. “Good.” He turned back to the screens only to face them once more, this time holding a slip of folded paper. “I found this in a place where only high Atlesian personnel were able to access. It’s labeled ‘for the teams RIFF, CRHT, STRC, ORHE, PASS’, and I hope you don’t mind that I and a few others looked at it making sure it was not malevolent.”

“Yes sir, we understand,” Creu stated. He handed her the note.

He continued. “We didn’t understand what was written on it, so it may be some kind of code.” Creu began to unfold it after a moment of staring at her team’s name written across the outer fold. 

The note was simple: “Plus Ultra.” It was signed by two names: “Eraserhead and All Might” 

And then the air was filled with gunfire and red lights.

On a ship, the students of Beacon and other schools stared in horror as the general’s ship fell, trailing fire and smoke. “Fuck!” Ashen yelled. Behind him, the patterning of footsteps sounded and he turned to see Thunder grabbing onto the arm of the youngest Rose sibling. 

“Dude, you can’t jump off this ship! What are you thinking?” Forte exclaimed. The girl struggled in Thunder’s grip.

Ashen gave a frustrated sigh before marching up to the group. “If you’re going to fucking jump off a ship, you better have a fucking brilliant plan. So let’s hear it,” he said, crossing his arms. 

The kid stilled and looked down. “Well, I think Torchwick is behind some of this. I was going to use one of the rocket lockers we left in the arena to launch me higher so I could land on his ship and take him down,” she finished meekly.

“And how the fuck do you know which ship he’s on?” Her head stayed down. He tapped his foot. “It’s a shit plan, but we do need to fucking take whoever the fuck’s leading this thing down, so new plan, we’re coming with.” The rest of team STRC grinned.

Jaune stood, sword and shield ready, next to Pyrrha. They’d already taken out several of the grimm in the courtyard, though he was wary about the giant rumbling that had just shaken the ground moments earlier. Suddenly, the golden weapons next to him drooped and Pyrrha began to walk towards the school, where Headmaster Ozpin stood, cane in hand, waiting. Ren and Nora ran by, chasing a beowulf.

“Where is she going?” he heard the girl shriek. 

“I don’t know. You two stay here and keep fighting, I’ll go find out,” and he ran, following the two down into the heart of the school.

On the rooftop of the largest and most grand of the flying Atlesian ships, Ruby’s eyes widened in horror as a large, dragon-like grimm flew past.

“That thing’s huge!” she heard Ryder cry out, and suddenly, she felt infinitely better that the team had demanded to go with her. The shrieks and cacophony of griffins filled the air as the grimm surrounded them, a few occasionally landing on the ship’s roof. The team and girl launched into action, explosion and the sounds of blades hitting their targets adding to the noise. A click sounded that was completely out of place and Ruby whirled around to see a girl with brown and pink hair, an Atlesian uniform dissolving into pixels and revealing her true form as Torchwick’s sidekick. She winked, and then surged forward, umbrella tip brandished as Wiess would her saber. Ashen gave a yell and an explosion knocked the sharp tip off course, but the girl merely turned the momentum into a kick, punching him back. The fight continued as such: Thunder valiantly tried to connect his wire conductors, Forte ran back and forth to take hits from her to protect the others, explosions pushed her back, and still she remained elusive from the group. Ruby aimed a bullet that shattered the girl into glass and there was Torchick, cane aimed at the group, firing off shots of red. Ruby yelped as she was hit and quickly dug her scythe into the metal of the ship to keep her from slipping any further. She looked up at the criminal who bent down, hands folded over his cane. She could see in the back, STRC fending off the girl to keep her from getting any closer to Ruby or Torchwick.

“Little red, little red,” the man mocked. “You are just determined to be the hero of Vale, aren't cha’?”

“What are you doing? Without these ships, the grimm will destroy everything!” she begged him to see reason.

His grin turned wild. “That’s the plan!” and just like that he was shooting at her again, she pulled her scythe free and blocked a few rounds but was ultimately pushed to the edge. She risked a peek. It was a long way down.

“But why? What do you get out of it?”

He gave a tut. “You’re asking the wrong questions Red. It’s not what I have to gain, it’s what I can’t afford to lose!” and with a blast she was knocked over, just able to catch herself with her scythe. She heard the boys yelling her name, but she could only look up at the maniacal eyes of her assailant. “I may be a gambling man,” he started, “but even I know there are some bets you just don’t take,” he said mockingly, leering at her. He leaned over to be closer to her face. “Like it or not, the people who hired me are going to change the world! You can’t stop ‘em, I can’t stop ‘em, and you know the old saying, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!” Ruby’s determination flashed and with a burst of rose petals she knocked his head back and she clambered up the edge to face him. 

“I don’t care what you say!” she yelled as she lifted Crescent Rose up. “Because we will stop them, and I will stop you!” He glowered and she charged forward screaming at him. “BET ON THIS!”

Torchwick swung his cane as she approached, knocking her aside and as she scrambled to gain her bearings he rushed forward, shooting and swinging at her, until she was flung across the roof where the two toned girl was fighting off the the boys, trying to rejoin the criminal stalking up to her.

“Ya got spirit Red, but this is the real world!” Ruby curled up concentrating on her aura as the cane beat her side. The real world is cold!” Another hit. “The real world doesn't care about spirit!” Ruby kicked her leg out, luckily making contact with his stomach pushing him back long enough for her to stumble to her feet, breathing heavily and looking up at the man. “You want to be a hero?” he growled, moving steadily forward. “Then play the part and die like every other huntsman in history!” and with that he gave a final swing. This time, Ruby could feel the crackling of her aura. It was too much, she couldn’t take anymore, she thought as tears began to well up, the cold of the wind stinging against her cheeks. “As for me?” he gave her a last unsettling smile. “I’ll do what I do best: lie, cheat,” and he leaned over her, raising the cane, a flash of white on black coming ever closer. “And survive!” and closer it came, swallowing the man whole with a sickening crunch of bones as the can fell out of his rapidly loosened grip and slid off into the city below. 

There was the sound of the scraping of metal on metal as the petite pink girl charged Ruby, something cracked in her eyes, and Ruby braced for the pain of the dirk protruding from her umbrella. Suddenly, Ashen was there, grabbing the girl by her arm and with a blast, hurled her off the ship as the rest of his team made short work of the grimm that had eaten Torchwick as Forte and Ryder flung it into the ships main compartment, causing it to detonate in a burst of orange and yellow fire.

A hand gripped Ruby’s arm and she faced Thunder. “We have to leave now!” and he pulled her away as the ship began to fall.

Across the kingdom, red lights flickered to black.

Jaune could barely seem to hear beyond his own ragged breaths and the pounding of feet on the tiled floor of the green lit vault. The question of what Beacon would need to hide away from the world in this vault died on his lips as he looked at the machinery and wires decorating the entire end of the hall. Two capsules stood at opposite ends, one waitin goppen like a coffin, the other, carrying a scarred girl. She looked so young. Pyrrah looked at him, in fear, in sorrow, her eyes mixed with all kinds of emotion. 

“Pyrrha, get to the pod,” Professor Ozpin ordered as he whirled to the glowing blue screen in front of him. Pyrrha gave him a final look of terror before sealing herself away. “If you’d like to help. Stand guard here.” Jaune nodded and turned his back on Pyrrha and the professor, sword and shield at the ready. The words the professor spoke seemed to fade into the buzzing in the air, and Jaune kept his eyes trained at the opposite end of the hall. Pyrrha’s voice was muffled, and the buzzing of the air was joined by the humming of machinery. The buzzing turned into screaming. It was all that Jaune could do to not tear his eyes away from the elevator doors. Even still he was not fast enough.

The arrow passed just centimeters away from the edge of his shield. 

A girl gasped.

The buzzing cut out and was replaced by the dead and stale silence that took hold of the vault.

Jaune could only stare as a burst of warm yellow light engulfed the woman standing just outside the elevator turned a sour, bitter color. The professor's warning fell on deaf ears and the silence muffled the pounding of Jaune’s heart as he was flung across the room and the pounding of Pyrrha as she struggled against the seal of her coffin. She was suddenly kneeling besides, whispering to him, they had to leave, please, Jaune, we have to go. 

So Jaune struggled to his feet and the two ran for the doors that once let a killer inside.

Wiess’ head still rang with energy. The summon, even only being partial, was draining, and she struggled to keep her head on straight. She vaguely remembers Feuer rushing to her side, clothes singed and burned, but otherwise unharmed. He walked her to where the civilians were being evacuated, where Doctor Oobleck gave orders in a clear and firm voice, such a far cry from what she was used to in the classroom. Her head eventually began to clear and she blinked as the weight of her brother at her side lifted and was replaced by Zwei. She looked with weary eyes and people with people bearing stretchers of the wounded rushed to and fro, and she watched as her brother approached his team and friends, all gathered near a man in black and grey. She wondered briefly, who it was, before two stretchers caught her eyes as they were laid down near the first aid airship. Black, and yellow. Blake and Yang. 

Her head was suddenly clear as day and she ran across the courtyard of the ruined Beacon Academy staring in disbelief as a pair of medics wrapped what little was left of Yang’s arm and treated the stab wound in Blake’s side, cleaning it of blood. The faunus was falling in and out of consciousness, and only seemed to repeat two words: “I’m sorry.” She raised her hand to her mouth, bile rising in her throat and numbness settling in her veins like ice. She thought she was ready to be a huntress, her sister said she was ready, but she was not ready for the ache of pain that tore into her heart. The pair moved on to others in need of help, including Ren and Nora, both battered and bruised, but she could not tear her eyes away. She heard in the distance Ruby calling to her, and she whirled around clasping her friend’s hands in her own as the boys she was traveling with deviated in their path to join the growing group at the side of the courtyard.

She tried asking her where she was, if she was okay, but Ruby just cut her off with an assurance that she, “was fine.” It was then she must have taken in the pain in Wiess’ eyes and she asked, “What’s going on?” Weiss only looked down and stepped aside, watching in her peripheral as Ruby took in the prone figures of her teammates and friends. Sun stepped forward with reassurances, wrapping his arms around the young girl as tears spilled from the corners of her eyes. Wiess felt a tug at the edge of her skirt and she looked down at Nora.

“Please, Weiss, we need help. Jaune and Pyrrha are still out there. We have to go after them.” Wiess gave them a nod but Sun and Ruby overheard. 

Ruby gave a soft exclamation but Sun’s face hardened. “Look guys, that giant grimm keeps circling the school, even the White Fang are pulling out! We all have to go. Now.” It was the most serious Wiess had ever heard him be.

Ren struggled to sit up properly, his weapons in hand. “We’re not leaving!” but his body had taken too much damage in the fight with the Paladin and collapsed on him. Sun looked away only to turn his gaze back to Blake and Yang’s motionless bodies. 

Ruby straightened up. “I’ll find them.” And then louder. “I’ll find them, and I’ll bring them back.”

And Weiss was not about to let her leave by herself. The risks of becoming like the rest of the team was too great. “No, we’ll find them.” Ruby’s face softened into a small smile that she returned before looking at the group. “Look after Blake and Yang. We’ll be back.” Sun gave the smallest of nods and the two turned around to race back to the school. But an arm gripped her wrist and she looked at the white glove and the green coat and she and Ruby looked into Viridian’s eyes, Feuer and all the other teams consisting of their friends behind him. She glanced, this time, at the man who was with them, who had long black hair and a rough face, dressed in dark clothes and a grey scarf around his neck.

Viridian looked at them, and softly spoke. “Please, stay safe. I can’t stop you, but please, come back safe.” Ruby turned and ran back to her brother, engulfing him in a tight hug. 

“I promise.”

He smiled. Not the 100 watt smile Wiess was so used to seeing, but a small, sad one, carrying a gravity to it. “I love you Ruby. You and Yang, are both amazing sisters.”

Feuer stepped forward. “We need to head into Vale now,” he said and he opened his arms slightly, and Weiss gave her twin a gentle embrace. The two girls looked at their brothers and ran away towards the school.

And Class 1-A turned and walked away from Beacon Academy.

Tai Long paced the wooden floors of his home, the tense atmosphere that had settled on Remnant seeping through the cracks and into the air of the house. He’d gotten only a short message from Qrow telling him that he’d be back soon, with no indication of how his kids were doing. The entire evening, and long into the morning, he had spent fighting the grimm that had come too close to Patch since Beacon fell. People were scared, and even far from Beacon, there had been consequences. There was a crunch of leaves outside and Tai whirled around to wrench open the door. And there stood Qrow, on his back Ruby, and in his arms, Yang, upper arm bandaged and lower arm missing. There was no sign of Viridian. He ushered him inside and carefully took his younger daughter from his back, cradling her gently as he eased open her vacant room and set her carefully under the covers. He would deal with the worn and dirty battle weary dress later, after he saw to his eldest. His footsteps fell heavily on the wooden floors as he looked into Yang’s room where Qros was setting her down on her bed. After a moment of stillness, Qrow gestured with his head and the two stepped out into the living room where Tai sank into the couch cushions. Qrow followed suit, pulling out a metal canister and for once, Tai didn’t have it in him to reprimand his teammate.

“What happened,” he asked weakly.

Qrow shrugged. “Dunno what happened to Yang, but I found Ruby at the top of Beacon’s tower. The wyvern had been turned into stone. It’s not dead, but it sure as hell isn't going anywhere.”

Tai looked away. “I don’t want Ruby to be burdened with silver eyes. Not like Summer.” His head fell into his hands. “Where’s Viridian?” Qrow didn’t answer. “Qrow? Where’s my son?” Still nothing.

Tai looked up at the man, who was taking a long drink from his flask. “I don’t know. He and the rest of his team, as well as a few other teams, have simply vanished. Gone without a trace.” The silence was only broken hours later by the sounds of sobbing and Tai rushed to Yang’s room. In the room, Yang was looking in horror at what was left of her arm and she looked up at Tai.

“Dad,” she wailed, tears falling down her cheeks. Tai stepped forward and gave her a hug, trying to pour all of his love for her into it. 

“I know, sunny. I know. I love you.” she only cried harder and when she woke again up later that day, deep into the afternoon, she was silent.

Ruby lay in bed, propped up by the pillows at her headboard as her uncle left her room. She was home, in Patch, with Yang and dad, but never had she felt so out of place in her own house. She paid only a glance at the empty bed next to her own, its green sheets and blankets just as she’d last seen them, and quietly crept out of the room, only hearing the murmurs of dad and uncle Qrow talking in the kitchen and the water running from the tap. She pushed the door to Yang’s room open, looking gratefully at her sister, sitting gup, looking out the window, and alive.

“Yang,” she called quietly, hopefully, into the deafening mournful atmosphere. Her sister said nothing, only continued to look out the window. So Ruby lowered her eyes and began to leave the room before she heard a sigh.

“Ruby,” and she looked her sister in her lavender eyes. She rushed forward to give her a hug. She was so, so happy, to know that her sister was doing better. But still her heart ached with wanting and loneliness. “I’m so glad you're okay.”

Yang didn’t return the hug as she normally would, full of life and strength. “But I’m not,” she said, her voice flat and devoid of anything that made her Yang. Ruby looked down at the stump of her sister's right arm. “It’s all gone. The school, Penny, Pyrrha, and-” she cut herself off.

“Yang,” Ruby pleaded. “Where are Wiess and Blake? Where’s Vir?”

“Weiss’ father came for her.” Ruby gave a sound of shock. 

“Why? What do you mean?”

Yang stared at the foot of her bed. “No one outside of Vale knows what happened here. Before the tower fell, the last thing everyone saw as Atlesian knights attacking the innocent. Afterwards, Vale was completely disconnected to the rest of Remnant. Everyone is scared, and no one knows who to trust. So her father came to take her back to Atlas. Where he thinks it’s safe.” Ruby looked pleadingly at her, to no avail. “She’s gone.”

“But what about-”

“And Blake ran! After we landed in Vale, she just, ran!”

Ruby couldn’t stand to hear anymore. “But, why?”

Yang hardened her eyes. “I don’t know. And I don’t care.” With that, she turned back to the window and the falling leaves and dying trees. Ruby tried once more to protest, but Yang cut her off. “There doesn't have to be a reason Ruby. Bad things just happen, and you can’t stop them. We clearly didn’t know her as well as we thought,” she finished bitterly.

“And Vir?” she asked, voice finally losing what little power it had. Yang shook her head, and said nothing. “What do we do?” 

“You can do whatever you want,” Yang bit back. “I’m just going to lie here.” Ruby stretched out her arms again. “Just leave me alone,” and slowly retracted them, her sister's defeated voice weighing down her arms. She stepped out of the room, her brother’s last words to her echoing in her head.

“I love you.” Stay safe.

A month later, she stepped out on the path to Haven, Jaune, Ren, and Nora at her side, snow crunching under their shoes as the silence of the world settled around them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nearly 5k words and 8 pages of size 9 Times New Roman, and we finally close on volume 3!
> 
> Also, I should clarify: All Might did meet up briefly with Tage/Aizawa last chapter but had to leave soon afterwards as he has his own job and work to do.
> 
> I hope you guys have enjoyed the story thus far (my writing got more melodramatic as the chapters have gone on, I’ve noticed) and we soon embark on the next volume! Say goodbye to canon kids! Because these are the orphanage steps where I’m leaving it! Bye bye!!
> 
> Setting aside the story, I hope everyone has been staying safe. I know the protests have been at the forefront of everyone’s minds but please keep in mind we are still in the midst of a pandemic. Please wear masks when you’re outside and take precautions, I don’t want anymore people getting hurt or sick these days. As much as I support the absolute upheaval that needs to happen to the police system, please remember to keep your safety in mind! But by all means, keep signing those petitions, and keep the protests afloat online! Racism is a serious problem that I wish I could just take a knife to, and I wish I could say I had some insight on all of this, but I don’t. I’ve never been discriminated for my race, and I take enough traits that I pass for Caucasian like my blond hair blue eyed dad. My mom understands the fear more than my dad and I do. She pushed to have my name changed in the possibility that someone could discriminate against me on the basis of my last name: Wang. I’m lucky that nothing like that has happened, but there are people in the world who aren’t as lucky, and it hurts knowing that part of my lineage has contributed to what my county has become. It’s not right, it’s not fair, and if I had a genie, my first wish would be to fix all this stupid prejudice based on someone’s skin color. There are enough issues in the world. (Ok I’m done with the rant)
> 
> Once again, I hope everyone is staying safe, and I’ll see you next time for our journey to Haven!  
Edit: I apologize for the next chapter taking so long, but I’m sorting out and preparing myself to move for college. I’ll be with you as soon as I can!  
-your local multi fandom fangirl


	14. Aftermath

Ruby slumped into the corner of the smithy, Ren and Nora quickly following suit. Jaune looked longingly at the small pile the team was building up but was pulled into a back room so his armor could be fitted. They had been hunting the Geist for days, and it was only in the midst of things did it occur to the team that the Geist may have been the one hunting them instead. Geist’s were generally smarter than other grimm, given their being able to determine what surrounding them would make the best body. The most dangerous weapon. Jaune had eventually come up with the idea of forcing it into an open field with no trees or rocks, but it was tiring work. Ruby quietly thought that it was worth it, for the relieved faces of the villagers, secured in the knowledge that they could rest safely.

The thumping of heavy boots on the stone floor a few moments later signaled her to look up at a sheepish Jaune, armor and weapon now adorned with gold, a red sash hanging at his waist. She’d first seen that sash their first week out traveling, when he had pulled it out from his pack. He’d shakenly said how on his way to the evacuation area, he found it drifting in the wind, falling from a tower. They spent that night curled up by the small fire, Jaune staring into the flickering life in front of him, and not for the last time, Ruby wondered if he was blaming himself for not fighting to go with her, or blaming himself for not having realized his feelings for her sooner. But looking up into the shy eyes of her friend, she was glad to see that he was starting to act like the Jaune they all loved.

“He cleans up all right, doesn't he?” the smith asked jovially, clapping the blond boy on his shoulder. When Ruby first met Jaune, he probably would have collapsed under the Smith’s heavy hand, but the boy(?) in front of her stood tall and steady. Nora smiles fondly at him from her place besides Ren as she takes in the rebirthing of their leader. He had to be reborn, because he’d died that night. 

“We should probably start heading to the next town over if we want to make it there before dark,” Ren said quietly and Jaune nodded in agreement. The group turned to the smith and gave him their thanks. Ruby bowed slightly to him, as Viridian might have, before the group, team, began to walk down the dusty path ahead of them.

Wiess sat in a white chair, decorated with silver, in her room of monochromatic lavishings and sickly sweet cage walls. The only color left in her home she wore, desperately trying to pull out of her father's grasp. The faint reflection of the window she looked yearningly out of showed her the brilliant reds and blues of her dress. Outside, an airship flew past. And in her cage, the white songbird waited, pining for a path she had so cruelly been stolen from.

A knock sounded at the door and Weiss turned to face it. “Come in,” she said, voice blank and void of emotion. Klein’s kind smile that appeared in her doorway quickly eased a softer look onto her face. “Hi Klein,” she said, voice gaining some of the life it once carried.

“Hello, my dear. How are you doing today?” he asked, closing the door behind him as he walked to the small coffee table with a silver platter of sweets. She gave him a wane smile, before returning to look longingly back outside the window.

“Any word as to where Feuer is?”

There was a pause before Klein spoke again. “Unfortunately, no. From what little I’ve heard you father say, there have been no leads, but then again, he’s been far more focused on keeping his own endeavours afloat ever since the Fall of Beacon. The embargo is impacting his trading.”

Weiss sighed bitterly, gripping the royal blue of her dress, toying with it’s white edges and underskirt. “Of course. Thank you Klein.” He bowed his head and retreated backwards, pausing at her doorway. 

“I’ll go get us some drinks, my dear. Might I suggest you take a walk around? It’s not fitting of a girl such as yourself to sit in this tower doing nothing.” She gave a nod and stood up. Klein closed the door behind her and walked towards the kitchen.Weiss stared at the retreating back of the one person who was only ever unequivocally kind to her and sighed, looking at the long and empty hall of white and silver. At the intricately embroidered carpet that lined the floor, and the spotless windows. 

What beautiful walls of a cage they were.

Blake stood at the docks, looking out at the ocean between her and Menagerie. She wordlessly handed the crewmate her ticket and stepped onto the ship. She walked around the deck of the ship, before coming to a rest at a balcony. An uneasiness sat at the pit of her stomach. She shouldn’t be here. But she can’t have stayed. It ate her, the guilt. It was her fault. Only hers.

Chomp, on her limbs sinking into cold numbness. Constantly, she made her team, her friends, suffer at her mistakes. When she ran away, when she starved herself of rest, when the White Fang turned their attention to Vale. How could it not be her fault? 

Chomp, creeping up to her shoulders and neck and into the faint buzzing in her head. When Adam found her. And repaid her own actions by punishing Yang. To punish her.

Chomp, inching towards her stuttering heart.

Footsteps thundered behind her on the deck, the shrieking voices jolting her out of her thoughts. Children chased after one another, and Blake took in a shuddering breath, easing Gambol Shroud back into its sheath from where she had begun pulling it out from.

No one there to hunt her down. She was alone now. She can’t hurt anyone else.

Chomp.

Yang was still silent. Her world was muted. Colors bled from the sunflowers and trees outside her window. She sat in her bead, a book of fairy tales at her side, nestled in the folds of the covers, the sunlight from the window resting across her body.. Her body tensed as a tap sounded from the glass panes by her bedside. She looked up at her dad, giving her a bright smile, strained as it was, before he continued to water the growing flowers. Nothing was going to harm her here, he constantly reminded her. Nothing around their home but trees and meadows and yellow sunflowers. No one around but her and dad. 

Just her and dad.

No one standing in front of her, lit by a backdrop of burning debris, crimson dripping from the sword at his side. 

Yang’s eyes snapped open, heart beating against the cage of her ribs, end of her arm throbbing with an invisible fire. The light from the window had moved across the room to rest at the door to her room, dimmed in the way sunsets were. She pulled her knees up to her chest, breaths rattling in her lungs. 

No one here but her and dad.

No sister, no brother, no team, no friends. 

Just herself and her weak body laying in bed surrounded by flowers that stole her favorite color from her. She had never felt more grey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! How are all you guys doing? Hope you’ve been wearing masks and staying safe!
> 
> Anyways, I come bearing a new chapter! I intended for this chapter to illustrate exactly what problems the RWBY characters are going to tackle because I honestly kinda hated how the show handled everything I mean, they were just in what was practically war! And it feels like it was shrugged off. RoM is going to focus more on Weiss, Blake, and Yang then team RNJR for volume 4, because they’re mostly just walking. Let’s look at the more intricate character struggles of the people who are staying still.
> 
> I’m going to try to get at least one, if not two, chapters out before I board my plane to Rhode Island for college. We’ll explore what happened to Class 1-A and more!
> 
> I’ll see you guys soon! Stay safe!  
-your local multi fandom fangirl


	15. The Road Ahead

Oscar jerked upwards, covers flying off him with a shout. Another nightmare. He scrubbed at his eyes trying to erase the image of monsters and battles from his mind, at the same time trying to steady his breath. It had been months, yet, with every week that passed he only seemed to have more and more strange dreams. Nightmares of Grimm, of pale claws and black cloth draped like blood. Of the glowing red eyes of hatred. Yet, he would also find himself dreaming of wandering empty halls of some grand building, a staff in his hand, and the echoes of children’s laughter haunting the space behind his every step.

A knock sounded at the trapdoor to his room, the hayloft of the barn. 

“Come in,” he said, eyes wandering to look at the soft sunlight that was starting to stretch above the horizon line in hues of pinks and oranges. The trapdoor heaved open and the toothy grin of Eijiro made itself known as the teen stuck his head up.

“Hey dude! We’ve got some breakfast for you if you want it!” Oscar smiled gratefully.

“You really don’t have to do that, you know,” he pointed out as he made his way out of bed. “My aunt and I can feed ourselves just fine.”

Eijiro shrugged. “Well, it’s the last we can do, seeing as you’re offering a place for us to stay while we figure out our next destination.”

Oscar shoved his rag cloth in his pocket and stood at the edge of the ladder as the red head started to climb back down to where his friends were already bustling around and getting ready for the day. “We offered you a place to stay because you guys are helping us around the farm while fighting off the Grimm. It’s really strange that they started attacking us so much recently. They used to just leave us alone,” he finished, stepping down onto the ground. 

“Good morning, Oscar!” Ochaco chirped, the other teens greeting him in kind as he walked across the barn to the makeshift dining table where plates waited. In the corner of the building Aizawa slouched next to the group of four teens that were up defending the farm during the night, huddled together as they napped, empty plates stacked in a pile off to the side. 

Momo gave him a warm smile as he sat on a bale of hay next to Izuku, back from another expedition into town for maps and books, with a notebook and several maps and notes out in front of him, and handed him a plate she’d ladled with a stew of some kind and a slice of bread. “Good morning, Oscar. Did you sleep well?” He lifted his shoulders slightly and moved his head back and forth in that as well as could be manner, before scooping a bit of the stew into his mouth. “Nightmares again?” He nodded, taking a bite of the bread.

Toru bounced up to take a plate and seat across from him. “Maybe it’s your semblance! You mentioned it hasn’t shown up yet! Maybe it lets you see visions in your dreams!” she finished, waving her arms around energetically. 

Oscar swallowed a bite of bread. “I guess it could be, but I don’t think that’s what it is. All my dreams seem to be from someone else’s perspective, and I think the person changes every time. I think. I haven’t actually been able to see who’s perspective I’m looking through. I guess there aren't many mirrors in my dreams.”

Izuku looked up from a map he was studying. “I used to know someone who had the ability to look into someone else’s future. But I don’t think he was able to see it play out from their perspective.” 

Oscar looked up at him, eyes wide. “Really?”

He nodded. “I worked with him for a bit. He was an old partner of my mentor. I didn’t know him for very long, though.” He then frowned. “But something tells me that your dreams aren't a semblance. I don’t know how to describe it, but I think it’s something else.”

Oscar hmmmed, and continued to finish his breakfast. 

Shoto sat down next to his boyfriend who was watching the younger boy and several of their classmates, Mezo, Koji, Kyoka and Tenya, head out to start work on the farm. Izuku watched until the group was out of sight, and even then, continued to stare off into the open barn. “Izuku? What’s wrong?” 

The green haired boy smiled up at him, and shook his head. “Nothing’s wrong, it just,” he hesitated. “I told you and the others about One for All.” Shoto nodded as others took seats around them to listen in. “How I first received it and how it worked. It changed slightly, when I first redeveloped it. Many of our quirks changed. I actually have a theory about that. I think that when we showed up here in Remnant, our bodies and our quirks, as part of our genetic code rearranged themselves so that they can exist here. Remnant isn’t Earth, it must have its own rules that people have to follow, so that’s why our semblances aren't entirely our quirks.” Shoto blinked, and Izuku flushed a cute red. “I’m sorry, I got distracted.” The group laughed good naturedly.

“It’s okay Midori! We still love you!” Mina chirped.

Izuku chuckled. “Well, anyways.” His face sharpened in concentration. “Part of One for All that I lost in translation is my connection to the previous holders of it. I had been able to see visions of them, but now, nothing. I have to assume this is because I didn’t actually ‘inherit’ it this time. But, being around Oscar, it's strange. It almost feels like I’m feeling some kind of connection. Maybe that isn’t the right word. It’s like I’m picking up a signal from him, one that reminds me of my connection to One for All, and its users.”

Momo tapped her chin in thought. “You think he has some kind of similar power that you had.”

“That’s the theory.” Izuku sighed. “I’d like to get to know him better, see if there’s anything I can do to help him if it is a similar situation. I would have been lost without Toshinori. But,” he shuffled his notes away and pulled out a map to spread it across the table. “I think we need to start moving. According to what Aizawa-sensei has told us from his time in the bandit camp with Raven and what I’ve been able to pick up from books over the month here traveling into towns, the four schools for huntsmen are more than just schools. There is a relic hidden in each of the four schools. The one here,” he tapped a location, “is supposed to be the relic of knowledge. What if this relic could give us the information we need to go home?” The rest of Class A around the table nodded and murmured agreement. Izuku began to trace out another path with his finger. “And once we have that, we can travel by train through Mistral and negotiate a ride to Atlas.”

“What’s in Atlas that we need? Kero.”

“The last of our party, Yagi Toshinori. Then, we can go home.”

Oscar propped up the last of the tools in the shed before closing and locking them up for the day. The sun had just begun to set, and the day had gone on in relative peace. He thankfully hadn’t had another strange dream since his last nightmare a few days ago, but his waking hours felt different. It felt like he wasn’t alone, and yeah, he had the others around at all hours of the morning, groups of them switching out through the day to trade off work, but that wasn’t it. He could almost swear he was hearing whispers, indistinct, at the back of his head. He couldn’t understand anything being said, but he supposed it could have just been the insects in the fields. Hearing voices was never a good sign. “Oscar! Dinner is ready! Get everyone inside!” his aunt yelled out from the doorway of their house. The teens behind him whooped in excitement, and he could feel a smile stretch across his face. They always seemed to make things lighter. 

A hand clasped at his shoulder and he looked up to the grinning face of Hanata. “Come on! Rikido and your aunt probably have something amazing cooked up!” He shook his head in amusement. “Man, I remember what dinners were like when we were first put in front of a kitchen. We had to ban people from cooking to keep up from getting poisoned.” By now, the two were stepping into the dinning room, and the others had caught the tail end of their conversation. Protests from some of the teens were already starting up. Bakugo shut them down before any of them could finish their sentences. 

Rikido, Mezo, and Fumikage just then walked in with plates and bowls of steaming food, the latter two having activated their semblances to help carry everything in one trip. Oscar watched as Mezo’s two pairs of glowing arms and Fumikage’s shadow set down the plates on the table, and wondered. He was curious as to what his semblance would be, whether he could use it around the farm. He wondered what it must be like, to be one of them and help others and defend people from the Grimm. But not too seriously. He enjoyed his life on the farm. He loved his aunt, and was happy with the work he did, the occasional trips to the market to sell their farm’s goods, and content with the consistency and predictability in the passing days and years. But he did wonder. 

Dinner passed quickly, with laughter and talk of the day’s work. There had been a few Beowulves at the edge of the farm, but they had been quickly taken care of by the group on portal for the day. And as the food dwindled and the talk began to quiet down, the teens started to exchange looks with one another. Eventually Aizawa stood up and gave a bow, like the others often did, and spoke. “We appreciate all that you have offered us in this past month. However, we will be leaving and moving on with our travels shortly.”

Oscar’s eyes widened and snapped to look at the group. Many had turned their eyes down, but a few had stuck reassuring smiles on their faces. His aunt eventually spoke up. “Well, I suppose we can’t keep you here forever, no matter how much easier farm work would be for us. But we’ve managed before and we can manage again. We were glad to be able to help such heroes in the making.” Oscar’s heart began to pound. Go, it seemed to say with each beat. Go with them, the voices seemed to whisper. You NEED to go with them, they insisted. “Oscar?” his aunt asked. “You look a little pale. Are you alright?”

“I-” He took a deep breath. GO “I want to go with you!” he blurted out, words pouring out of his mouth like a dam had been broken, and suddenly the voices ceased. He looked up. His aunt looked shocked. As did many of the others. Of course they would. He was happy here. He’d never shown an interest in traveling beyond the market stalls of nearby towns. But his blood thrummed, and there was a pleased humming in his veins. Yes, his body seemed to say. This is what you want to do. This is what is right. 

“Kid,” and suddenly Aizawa was besides him. “Why do you suddenly want to go with us?”

“I-I don’t know. I just-- it’s like a feeling, that I have to go with you.” Aizawa’s eyes narrowed in thought and suspicion, flickering once to make contact with the green eyes of the student behind Oscar’s sight.

His aunt sighed. “If you really feel like you have to go, then I won’t stop you.” His eyes opened in surprise. She gave a slightly bitter smile. “I’ve kept you here nearly all your life, after your parents died. And you’ve stayed here for all that time, never ventured beyond the boundaries I’ve set. Life is more than just the farm. I traveled before settling here. As did my sister. As should you.” His aunt looked into her nephew’s eyes, and even as the next day dawned and he set out on the dusty road with a crowd of travelers around him, never mentioned to him how his eyes seemed to shimmer with many shades of color, the eyes of others looking out at the road ahead of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!
> 
> Unfortunately, I do not know when I will be able to write and post the next part of the fic. Early Sunday morning, I'll be taking a plane to Rhode Island where I'll start my college career. The first year of RISD is notorious for its intensity and stress and work, so I can't plan when I'll be able to work on this. I'm not putting this on hiatus, because I may very well be able to work on it, but updates if then will be few and far in between.
> 
> Also, probably should clarify, Class A, now that they've more properly been reunited with ties more or less cut off from the others, have reverted to using their old names, but their familiarity with one another has it that they're using their first names and not their family names like they used to. Hope that makes sense. 
> 
> Also also, I’m changing how the Oz reincarnation process works. Mostly because I didn’t really want to figure out how to write Ozpin, and thought giving him a more solid connection to someone like Izuku would work wonders in the character arc he should have had in Volume 6.
> 
> Anyways, I hope you have all been staying safe and healthy, hope everyone's ACNH island is going the way you want it to, and feel free to leave a comment down below if you just want to chat! 
> 
> Ever your loyal multi fandom fangirl. 
> 
> also i may or may not write a short one shot on the Owl House soon because fuck my heart, not like I needed it or anything.


	16. Why the Caged Bird Sings

Weiss perched at the edge of her bed, looking at the sheets of music propped up on the music stand in front of her. The song it proposed she sing was so… typical. It was virtually a copy of every kind of performance song the Atlesian elite listened to. Not that her father would let her sing anything less than what was expected of her status. 

Wiess sighed and fell backwards head looking up at the white canopy cover over her bed. Like she had just ten minutes before. Was this it? Would she be stuck in an endless loop? Forced to sing at command of her father and the expectations of the elite and stare at the walls of her room when she wasn’t? She sat back up again, staring at the printed pages. “The Ballad of the White Queen,” it read. Classic solo music. The song was based around the old fairy tale of the White Queen, who lost her lover and spent years searching for him. She’d sung songs from the White Queen’s opera before, but this particular one was centered around her rise to power after her period of mourning. 

A perfect representation of Atlas’ desires to rise and prosper despite the destruction around them. 

She hated it in a way she never knew she could now. 

She used to love the opera, but now, she could only see the twisted lyrics Atlas has forced to mean for themselves. At one point, she may have been content to sing at the behest of others, but now, after her taste of freedom and solace in her friends, her team, she couldn't bring herself to. She wanted her actions to have meaning, to be more than just a wind up toy reaction. And maybe… maybe she could.

Weiss gathered the sheet music into her hands and stared at them. The last performance she had done before she left for Beacon, she had sung a song of her own choice. Granted, her father had to approve it, and she admits that she had been fairly firmly under his thumb but maybe… 

Her father didn’t have to know.

Weiss looked in the mirror of her dressing room, silently fiddling with her ponytail. She had exchanged her now usual dress of blues and whites for a muted cocktail dress of silver and grey. She looked washed out, a pale husk of a performer. Her eyes narrowed and she pulled closer the jewelry box that she brought with her and opened it to look at the gems she had stashed away over the years. She picked through it, selecting earrings and hair clips and necklaces similar in shade to her brother’s favorite shade of blue, and a few in the red of his dyed hair. Weiss carefully put on each individual piece of jewelry and once they were all in, she smiled at her reflection and shook her head slightly, happy to watch the colored gems move in tandem. 

A knock sounded at the door and her smile quickly vanished, back straightening suddenly as the door opened and her father stepped in. 

She bowed her head slightly, not willing to look into his eyes with the knowledge that she was about to directly disobey his will. “Father.”

“Weiss. Prepared for your performance?” She barely had time to nod in agreement before he continued talking. “Good, good. Yes, I’ll be watching you with Whitley and a few other of Atlas’s council members that have graciously decided to join me for your performance.”

Weiss’s blood ran cold. Ah. That was new information. Her father expected her to sing as a way to continue to curry favor with those on the council. He was using her for power. And underneath his words carried something that spoke of what would happen if she didn’t dance to his tune. He continued to speak, unaware of the panic that flew through her mind. “Of course, this event has already promised to make many people happy. I hope you continue to ensure that it keeps them happy.” 

“Yes, father,” and with her response securred, Jaques walked out of the room. Weiss immediately resisted the urge to run her hands through her hair, only resisting because she knew she didn’t have the time to fix it before she went out on stage. Hell. She had written an entire song, a song meant to reclaim her own life away from her father even if she was still stuck in Atlas, and she only now knows that her father was still using her. 

She gasped for breath, heart hammering in her chest. Her ribs felt too tight, too restricting, and she pushed herself up out of her chair and out of the room. She walked past the stage hands and other workers, the musicians setting up for their opening number, just before her own performance, and she kept walking and walking until she was outside and walking until-- 

“Ah!” she exclaimed, stumbling backwards, heels clicking on the stone floor. A hand reached out and grabbed one of her flailing arms keeping her from falling and letting her steady herself. 

“My girl,” a deep voice rumbled. “Are you alright?”

Weiss looked up into a pair of glowing blue eyes. She pulled her arm out of his grasp, and ducked her head down to adjust her dress. “Yes, I’m fine. Thank you for catching me.”

He chuckled. “My girl, you have no need to thank me for that. I am here solely to help others.” She looked back up at him, for the first time really taking in the man who saved her. He was rather tall, and dressed in the typical whites and silvers of Atlas, but like she had chosen to do, decorated himself in varying shades of bright reds and blues, his blond hair and gold buttons completing the look. And there, pinned to his lapel, was an engraved pin, one that she had seen before.

Her eyes widened in realization. “You work for General Ironwood,” she muttered out loud, before snapping her mouth closed after she realized that she wasn’t silent in her thoughts.

The man didn’t seem to be bothered by her musings. “That I do. He invited me to join him tonight to watch a promising young huntress perform. You see, I’ve only just returned to Atlas after spending years away from it, and I try to take notice of the up and coming hunters and huntresses.” Weiss nodded. “Of course, I am a little puzzled as to why the star of tonight's show is spending time with an old man like me instead of waiting backstage.”

Weiss’s eyes snapped to meet his. “You know who I am?”

“I watched the Vytal festival. You and your team performed admirably in the matchups.” His easy smile turned hesitant. “Although, if you don’t mind me wondering, what are you doing here without your brother? I assumed he would be with you.”

“He and his team have gone missing. We’re not sure where he is,” she admitted.

“Ah, I see.” He looked away for a moment, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. “I had hoped… never mind.” He turned to look at her once more. “So what are you doing all the way out here, young Schnee?” 

Weiss fiddled with her dress, smoothing out invisible wrinkles. “I’m not so sure I can sing tonight.”

“And why do you think that?”

“I know my father organized this as a way for our family to show support for the kingdom of Vale, but he has his own motives for me singing tonight. And, I thought I could maybe sing something of my own choice, but-” her hands dropped to her sides. “I’m scared. But I’m a Schnee, I can’t afford to be scared!”

The two stood in silence until the delicate quiet was broken by the sound of thunderous applause. The performance was beginning. She was set to sing in less than ten minutes. “You know, young Schnee, I think it’s okay to be scared.” She met his eyes. “I knew a boy who was so often terrified, but no matter what, he persevered in his actions. He’d always admit to me that he felt fear so acutely, even while he stood up to confront his opponents. And I always told him that it was alright to be scared. Knowing and accepting that fear is part of what makes us human. No one is without it. And I think, Young Miss Schnee, that you are brave, and strong enough to accept that fear.” He patted her shoulder before turning away and walking towards the auditorium, leaving her to think about his words. 

Weiss stood up and walked back to her dressing room to grab her music. 

For the second time that night, a hand wrapped around her arm. Only this time, it was accompanied by a harsh voice demanding to know where she was going. 

“I’m thirsty, I was just going to get a drink.”

“Sweetheart, we have people for that,” her father said, lifting his other arm to wave down a waiter.

Weiss tugged her arm out of his grasp. “I can get it myself,” and turned to walk as far away from him as she could, ignoring his narrowed eyes that stared as she retreated from her father’s presence. He’s so far kept her close to him all throughout the evening after her performance, one last attempt to keep her under his thumb. But Weiss was tired and done with playing his pawn. She halted in front of a painting of her school, trees a brilliant red and a warm glow seemingly coming from the sky. For a moment, she just stood there, trying to soak in the beauty of what had become her home. The moment was then shattered as a boy, about her age, stepped up, glass of champagne in his hands, and a second he offered to her. 

“The painting’s beautiful, like you,” the boy said. Weiss decided to ignore him, not giving him any indication that she heard him or that she wanted the glass he held out to her. He cleared his throat. “Maybe I started on the wrong foot. I’m Henry. Henry Marigold. And you’re Weiss Schnee, aren’t you? I saw your performance. You were lovely.” She turned her head away from him, rolling her eyes. His flirting was nothing like the playful flirty remarks her friends and her friend’s teams made. He wasn’t Jaune, with his boyish demeanor, or Neptune with his kind smile, or even Thunder who flirted with anyone, even the other boys on his team despite the fact that Ashen would set off a few explosions after one to many comments to Forte. “Are you thinking of buying the painting?” There was something about the way he spoke, she thought, that was just slimy. “It is kinda pricey, so I don’t really see the reason to bother.”

“It’s to raise money,” she finally snapped.

“Ah, she talks!” He gave a sleazy sort of smile. “Ah, raise money for what? Is this another Mantle fundraiser or something to keep them quiet and from bothering us?”

“For what?”

“I’ll admit, I only come here for the food and drinks, and the delightful company.”

“So what, you heard there’d be a pretty girl with a name you could flirt with and never bothered to open the pamphlet handed out at the beginning of the program?” He shrugged and drained the rest of his champagne. “Get out.”

“What? Why?”

“Because you can’t be bothered to use your brain for anything other than where to get free handouts. Leave, or I will have security escort you out.” 

Henry scoffed. “Whatever,” and started on his next glass of champagne as he walked away from her and the painting. 

Weiss' arms came up to wrap around her sides, a mocking echo of a hug. She closed her eyes, tyring, even for a moment, to pretend she wasn’t caged here in Atlas’ cage of silver and riches. She tried to drown herself in the noise around her, the clinking of glass, the rustling of floor length dresses and the murmur of voices that grew louder and louder and louder and-

“I mean, what did Vale expect? If they are so arrogant to think they can get by without proper defences, then I say good riddance.” Her eyes snapped open, darting around to look at the woman talking. “We’re all thinking it, they obviously had it coming. You agreed with me last night!”

“SHUT UP!” and once more, all eyes were on her. Her blood thrummed in her ears, and she caught the angry gaze of her father, and for a second, she faltered. 

“Excuse me?”

The second passed, “You don’t have a clue, none of you do! You’re all to worried about your hair, your money, your social standing, your stupid problems that don’t matter!”

“Weiss, quiet yourself,” her father growled striding towards her, but something had finally cracked within her. 

“Hundreds of people have died! Thousands more displaced! And you all act like nothing ever happened! Or you’re not acting at all! You just can’t see anything beyond the vanity mirror in front of your face!”

Jaques hand closed around her arm in a bruising grip. Her aura flared as she furrowed her brows and scowled. “Let go of me.”

“Weiss…”

“I said, let GO!” and her side hit the marble floor, silver aura flashing over her body and spilling onto the floor into a glowing sigil. She paid no mind to it, mind only filled with anger and disbelief. This blindness in the elite, was this what she had been like when she first arrived at Beacon? This idea that everyone not equal to others in beauty or money or fame was somehow beneath even acknowledgment? The white light solidified, and the boarbatusk she had faced as an ignorant elite herself manifested, snorting and scuffing the white floor. 

And it charged.

“No, please! Don’t! I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” and it leaped-

And with a bang, a bullet pushed it off course and the summon was shot to the side. Weiss took a breath, trying to center herself, arms struggling to hold her up after the effort of summoning her first full grimm, and traced the trajectory of the bullet to General Ironwood and the man she had run into earlier. 

“Arrest her!” the woman yelled, apologies forgotten. “She should be locked up, she’s clearly insane!”

Ironwood only nods his head in Weiss’ direction, and tells the woman, “She’s the only one making any sense around here.” He then turns to Jaques, still looming over his daughter in anger. “Thanks for the party, Jaques. Come, Atte.” And with that, he and the tall blond man walked out the doors and left. 

Weiss slammed the door to her bedroom shut and crossed the room to throw herself onto her bed. Stripped of her title, locked on the manor grounds. She had clipped her own wings. But she still felt the fires of satisfaction from finally speaking out licking and burning in her chest. She turned herself over so that she lay on her back and took a shuddering breath. Her temple still tingled as her aura, drained from the use of her semblance, struggled to prevent any bruising on her pale face. Her anger flared. The whole night had been an eye opener. She never really saw who she used to be until she stared down a woman groomed by society. Never really saw her father pulling every puppet string he could get his hands on until he finally got his hands on hers. She sighed and stood up to close the curtains, but at the window, she stopped and looked at a head of white hair that sat slumped under the gazebo. Her eyes narrowed in thought, and she turned around and opened the door to her room. 

Her heels clicked on the tiled floor, down the hall, down the stairs, a few turns, and she opened up the doors to their garden, walking along the stone path to the gazebo where her mother sat, a glass of wine in her hands. “Mother,” she greeted the woman.

“Weiss. How nice of you to grace me with your presence tonight.” She took a long sip from her glass. “Don’t have a performance after-party to be at right now? What are you doing here?” There was something bitter in her voice. She couldn’t recall a time where her mother wasn’t bitter or angry over something. 

“Can I sit?”

Willow scoffed. “I don’t control you, do I?” No, she didn’t. Willow’s control over anything had faded years and years ago, probably when she married Jaques. So Wiess took a seat on the stone bench opposite her mother. Her mother sighed and set the glass down. “Weiss, what are you doing here. You never came to talk or say hello to me. Feuer was the only one who ever did that. Why now?”

“I hate it here.”

“Hmph. About time you realized how poisonous this manor is. Feuer always hated it here, and Winter started hating it after she left to work for Ironwood. Whitely’s spent too much time with Jaques to see anything differently, even if I wish he could. Why now?”

Weiss didn’t answer, and instead asked her own question. “Tell me about Feuer? Despite being twins, I feel like I never understood him. Even if our relationship got better at Beacon, I still don’t quite understand him.”

Willow leaned back and tilted her head upward in thought. “Feuer noticed from a very young age exactly what kind of man Jaques was. He never explained how he figured it out, but he told me that he never wanted to see me lose my mind under the thumb of a man who was drunk on power. I’ll admit I’m slipping a bit, I really shouldn’t be drinking right now. Feuer’s been trying to keep me away from alcohol for years, but with everything going on, well, one bottle of wine can’t hurt. I think Feuer hates the idea of being under anyone’s control, and fears the idea of anyone falling victim to anything. He wants us to escape Jaques, but do so in a way that keeps us intact. Did you know,” she asked, “that Feuer is scared of boiling kettles of water? Nearly had a panic attack and stayed away from me for a week. I asked his friend, the Gossamer girl, why, and she said that he knew a woman who, out of fear for her husband, scarred her son with boiling water. Don’t know who it was or how he knew her, but he reacted very strongly to anything that indicated that I may not be completely in control of myself.” She lowered her head, and looked Weiss in the eye. “Has Jauqes finally shown too much of himself to you?”

She nodded. “I want to leave Atlas. Try to find Feuer.”

“Well, I have some cameras of my own set up around the house. I’ll let you know if Jaques ever has to be out of the house for an extended period of time. And I know I’m not your sister, but I can help you work on your semblance a bit.” Willow leaned forward and gently placed her hand on Wiess’ cheek, and for what seemed like the first time ever, she smiled at her. “You’re a good girl, Weiss. I know you’ll make the right choices. Just promise me that once you find Feuer, you come back to recover our family.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I know I've made some tweaks here and there, but I hope what I did fiddle with makes sense as to why. The next few chapters will follow as similar format, where I focus on a single character. Weiss was the easiest to figure out what to do with. I thought most of what she had in the fourth volume was great. I'm still figuring out exactly how to write Blake and Yang. You can probably expect the next chapter update to come out around Christmas. 
> 
> I hope you're all staying safe, still, keep wearing masks, avoid crowded places if possible, and just be cautious. We're having another uptick in covid cases here in RI, but the plague isn't exclusive. 
> 
> I'll see you all around!  
-Your local multi fandom fangirl


	17. Ocean's Song

Ruby squinted at the page and looked up again at the path they were taking. Not that she could see that much, a dense fog had rolled in overnight while they were sleeping and made it hard to see anything beyond the end of her scythe. “I think we should take the fork to the left,” she finally decided, turning back to the rest of her team. “The map says that it’ll bring us down to this lake, and we can follow that around to the village on the other side. It’ll be easier than trying to find our way in the woods, and we won’t get lost as easily. It’s a little longer of a route, but I think it’s the best option. It’s going to take a day or two at least, though. What do you guys think?”

Ren silently nodded and Nora leaned over to look at the map herself. “Don’t you guys think it’s a little weird that a fishing town isn’t like, right next to the edge of the lake?”

“I agree that it is strange that Solars is nearly a full mile away from it’s main source of income and food. What do you think, Jaune?”

The three turned to look at the blond who was staring out into the foggy mists and forest. “Jaune?”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah, sure, up to you.”

Ruby folded the map back up. “You ok Jaune?”

“Of course! Why wouldn’t I be?”

Nora poked his cheek, finally getting him to turn his back on the trees. “Because you’re acting weird. I mean, come one! What's so interesting about the fog?”

He looked back at the woods. “Don’t you guys think that the fog...looks a little different than normal fog?”

“No, not really,” Ruby admitted after a few moments of silence passed. 

“You were awake the longest to keep watch last night. Maybe you should let us take over tonight and just get some rest,” Ren suggested.

“Yeah, sure.” And with that the team started down the path to the lake. However, it didn’t take long for the rest of the team to realize that yes, there was something strange about the fog. The closer they walked to the lake, the thicker and denser it became. The further into the fog they went, the more silent the woods became, until they couldn’t hear a single bird or even the crunch of leaves beneath their feet as they moved. So Ruby stilled and turned to face her team. 

“Okay, everyone grab on to someone else so we don’t get lost.” She felt Nora’s hands grasp onto her cloak and Ren shuffled into view holding Nora’s other hand. And Jaune…

“Hey, guys? Where’s Jaune?”

Jaune wasn't quite sure when it was he lost track of the team. He only knows that he heard a whisper and when he turned to face it, there was nothing and when he looked back to where Ren was dutifully following Nora, he was alone. He resolved to continue walking in the direction he had been, reasoning that he would find the lake shore and the others eventually, and if he couldn’t find Ruby and the others, he could just continue to Solars, where he figured they wouldn’t move on without him. So he walked, and walked

and walked

seemingly forever until the sky above him darkened and the fog clouded everything in sight in a cloak of shifting grey. 

And he walked

and walked

and walked

Until the texture of the ground shifted beneath his feet and his foot sunk into the shallow bed of water at the edge of the lake. Here the fog receded and he looked at the shattered reflection swirling on the restless lake waters and the faint glow of a town across from where he stood. He looked down at the black waters his foot stood in and pulled it out, curiously watching how the water ran down his pant leg in clumped up rivulets, leaving the fabric almost dry. Jaune’s eyes narrowed in suspicion, and cautiously drew Crocea Mors as he surveyed what he could see of his surroundings. 

Nothing

moved 

but the shifting grey of fog and the lapping of darkened water at his feet. 

Jaune sighed. It didn’t seem that anything was in the forest, nor had anything followed him down to the shore. He was alone. Ruby, Ren, and Nora were nowhere to be found, and the chill of the fog was starting to seep beneath his hoodie and into his bones. He quickly walked back up to the forest and swung his sword, gathering some wood he could use to light a fire while he kept watch. It was pointless trying to move around and find the others now, and he was tired. He could sit and rest while still keeping watch.

So he set up the wood for a fire and drew from one of his pockets a small container of red fire dust that he gently sprinkled onto the wood. The ground crystals flared as they ignited and slowly, flames began to eat at their food. And slowly, Jaune’s eyes lost their battle and

fell 

shut.

“Shhhhh.”

Jaune stirred in his sleep, and it seemed to him that a warm hand was gently brushing back his hair out of his eyes. He lifted his hand to rub at his eyes, struggling to see who it was beside him. “Shhh, it’s okay, Jaune. You can keep sleeping, I can take this watch for you,” a voice whispered to him. It was soft, and spoke with such fondness and memory that it made his heart ache. It sounded like Pyrrha, the way she would whisper to him when she’d find him asleep over a homework assignment at Beacon. And he ached, knowing he was only dreaming of impossibilities. 

But it felt so real, so tangible, that he opened his eyes to remind himself not for the first time that the girl he never realized he fell in love with wasn’t there. The night was still dark, but the fire he had lit still cast light in a small bubble of space. And beside him…

His breath hitched as he took in the brilliant red hair and plated armour that glinted gold in the firelight, and he looked up at the beautiful emerald eyes so like that of his partner. She smiled at him, face so familiar, and she spoke with her voice. “I’m sorry! I must have woken you up! You can go back to sleep, Jaune, I’ll be fine looking out for us for a while yet.” 

His eyes widened, and he worked to find his voice. “I have to be dreaming.”

She looked up in thought. “Well, I don’t think I’m dreaming either, and I’m fairly certain we’re both awake. But you must still be tired, Jaune. You were walking around the woods a lot today. You should really get some sleep. It’ll be good for you!”

And she is just so like Pyrrha that he feels safe, and whole, such that he falls back into the waiting arms of sleep, the soft cracking of wood and the breaths of another lulling him into darkness, knowing that when he really wakes he’ll be alone again.

She was still there when he woke up. The fire had died down and the fog glowed with a hazy light from the sun. Jaune squeezed his eyes shut and when he opened them again he refused to look at her. “Jaune! You’re awake! Did you sleep well?” He adjusted his armor and pack and pulled Crocea Mors tight and turned to walk along the water’s edge. “Jaune! Wait for me!” He kept his eyes straight forward and never dared turn his head to look at the steps of gold and red beside his own.

“So what’s the plan, Jaune?

“I noticed that your stance has improved a lot! And you carry yourself so well now. I’m really proud of you Jaune.

“How are Ren and Nora? I do miss their playful interactions. They really helped round out our team didn’t they?

“Jaune…”

And finally he spun around to face her. 

“STOP TORTURING ME!” Her green eyes blinked in hurt, and it ached, it twisted shards of glass in his heart to see those eyes filled with such pain, and still. “Pyrrha is dead! She’s gone! So stop pretending to be her! Why are you torturing me with her?” Jaune sucked in a sharp breath, lungs desperate for air it couldn’t quite grasp.

“But,” she asked, hand clutched in a tight grasp over her heart, “am I not Pyrrha? I know, with such certainty that my name is Pyrrha Nikkos, and that you’re Jaune Arc, and that,” she hesitated, “That we’re partners.”

“Yeah? Well Ruby watched my Pyrrha get shot in the chest with an arrow. Whoever you think you are, you’re not.” And with that, he looked away once more.

“Then who am I?”

“I don’t know.”

That night, after a day of walking along the lake, the two began to quietly set up for the evening. The day had also been silent, neither one willing to break the brittle atmosphere that had set in around them. Jaune started the fire and wordlessly handed the girl a portion of food.

“Thank you, Jaune.

“Hey, Jaune?”

“Hmm?”

“How do I know I’m not actually Pyrrha? I so vividly remember my life, when we first met and only recognized me for my cereal promotion, and how I felt so relieved that I had the opportunity for someone to see me for being me and not for being the Untouchable Girl. And our first battle together with Ren and Nora, and I saw how you were able to think so quickly under pressure. I remember all the time we spent together, training on the balconies, and how keenly I was falling in love with you. How? How can I not be who I believe I am?”

Jaune sighed and tilted his head up to look at the darkened sky. “You remember all of our time together, our moments as a team.”

“Yes.”

And he realized. “You haven’t mentioned anything from before we met.”

“I,” and she straightened. “I remember…” and her eyes widened. “I don’t remember anything.”

Jaune stood up and swiftly walked up to the edges of the woods as if up close he could see something different in the fog. He recalled the whispers he thought he heard while walking through it. The obscuring qualities of it, how it muffled all sound. And then he paced back to the water and studied the water, it’s strange shifting quality, that reflected the moon’s light. Something at the back of his mind wiggled. Something he might have read in passing for one of Professor Port’s assignments. 

“I, I don’t understand. Why can’t I remember anything from before I met you?” She scrambled upwards but her foot caught as she struggled to stand and she fell back, hand smashing down onto the pebbled shore and she hissed, bringing her hand up to look at the gash she’d open on some rocks. And paused. “Why can’t I activate my aura?” she asked, a note of panic creeping into her voice. Jaune turned to examine the wound.

“Jaune...why is my blood black?”

And it clicked.

“Solars. Dammit. Dammit! That’s that town that had to be relocated from the water’s edge because of a Grimm in the center of Solars Ocean! One that created a dense fog to confuse and trap people and could..” He looked at her. “You can’t be Pyrrha.

“You’re a Grimm.”

“What? I-I-I can’t be Grimm. I’m human! I’m a person! I’m noT A MONSTER!” She curled up and clutched her head, red hair scrunched up under her hands, black already starting to stain her hand. “I feel things, I care, please, I’m not a Grimm.”

Jaune carefully kneeled next to her, a hand stretching out to comfort her hovering above her shaking shoulder. “You’re not a Grimm. Only a memory. I remember what the Grimm of Solars’ Ocean does. It creates mimicry of people’s memories, of things they yearn for. You can’t remember anything before I met Pyrrha because, I didn’t know her before that.” This he whispered to himself. “You’re only a memory of what I wish was real.

“You’re not a monster. You’re everything I loved about Pyrrha. And everything I’ve avoided. I never really took the time to mourn her. I thought, maybe, if I didn’t, it didn’t have you be true. But you being here, I-” and here he broke off. “You didn’t deserve this. It’s my fault you’ve been put into this position. But I’m also,” he hesitated. “I don’t think I’m ready to move on. I’m sorry.”

“But this is my fault, so please don’t apologize. I’m hurting you by being here. Juane, I don’t want to hurt you. I want to protect you, to fight by your side, I never wanted to hurt you! P-Pyrrha,” she stuttered, “didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“That’s okay. 

“I understand.” And he did. He hated that Pyrrha thought she had to hide things from him, things that ended up hurting both of them. But he understands her hesitance, her want to keep things from changing. To keep this perfect bubble around themselves from popping. He wanted to go back to that bubble, pretend his world hadn’t been shaken to its core, but living in the past never healed anyone. Of course he still loved her, but she was gone, and Jaune finally thought he might be ready to start moving again. 

The next morning, Pyrrha was gone, only small pools of black water left beside him, slowly inching back to the water. 

And he walked forward.

Ruby paced the wooden floor of the borrowed room she, Nora and Ren were staying in. It’d been two, nearly three days since Jaune had gotten separated, and she was really getting worried. The three had only just gotten to the town of Solars that morning and Jaune wasn’t there waiting for them. And to top it off, apparently the entire lake is infested with a Grimm that hunted at night, and it created the fog that caused the whole mess in the first place. She had offered to try and fight it, but the people only shook their heads. They had learned to live around it, fishing during the day and retreating to their homes at night. No other Grimm came near it, so they felt secure. They didn’t want to leave either. 

Nora suddenly gasped from where she was sitting by a window. “Jaune!” and Ruby bolted to look out the window with her. Sure enough, there was Jaune, making his way up the road with a villager leading him to where they were being housed. The moment he entered the room, the two girls tackled him in a hug, Ren joining them at a much calmer pace. 

“Are you alright, Jaune?”

“Yeah. I’m alright.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOOoo boy this chapter was something to write. 
> 
> Cookies to anyone who can identify the book that inspired this chapter in the comments!
> 
> Anyways, I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and are enjoying yourselves while also staying safe. I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, and I appreciate all of you for sticking with me this year! 
> 
> I'll see you guys around!  
-your local multi fandom fangirl


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